Nottingham Business School at NTU

Nottingham Business School (NBS) is the business faculty of Nottingham Trent University, a large public research university founded in 1843 and granted university status in 1992, located in the heart of Nottingham, England. NBS itself has grown steadily since the late 1980s into one of the UK's larger business schools, hosting undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive programmes across a dedicated modern campus. The school's founding philosophy was rooted in practice-led education — connecting classroom learning to the realities of the East Midlands business community — and that orientation toward applied, professionally relevant knowledge remains central today. NBS frames much of its academic agenda around the concept of Responsible Business, reflected in its curriculum design, research priorities, and its engagement with the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), of which it is a signatory.

Accreditations and Rankings

Accreditations

• AACSB accredited
• EQUIS accredited
• AMBA accredited — achieving Triple Crown status, a distinction held by fewer than 1% of business schools globally

Rankings and Recognition

• Nottingham Trent University: ranked 6th in the UK for graduate employability — QS Graduate Employability Rankings (2022)
• NTU ranked among the top 10 UK universities in the Guardian University Guide (2023)
• Nottingham Business School consistently ranked in the top tier of UK business schools for teaching quality and student satisfaction in the National Student Survey
• NTU ranked 1st in the UK for sustainability in the People & Planet University League (2022)

Executive Education at a Glance

Nottingham Business School's executive education offer sits within its Centre for Professional and Executive Development (CPED), which delivers both open enrolment programmes and bespoke corporate solutions for organisations across the UK and internationally. The school has particular strength in leadership development, people management, project management, and responsible business — and this last theme runs through its executive provision in a way that distinguishes it from more purely finance-focused business schools. Open programmes range from short courses of one to three days through to longer modular formats, with an increasing number of blended and online delivery options developed significantly since 2020. Indicative costs for open executive programmes typically run from £500 to £3,500 depending on duration and format, placing NBS at a competitive price point relative to Russell Group counterparts. Notable programmes include the Senior Leader Master's Degree Apprenticeship, which has attracted cohorts from employers across the public, private, and third sectors, and a suite of CMI-aligned management programmes that result in nationally recognised qualifications.

Campus and Facilities

NBS is based primarily on Nottingham Trent University's City Campus, a striking mix of Victorian civic architecture — anchored by the 1881 Newton Building — and contemporary additions that include dedicated executive teaching and meeting spaces. The City Campus sits in central Nottingham, within walking distance of the Lace Market, the city's financial and professional services quarter, and the creative and technology clusters that have redefined Nottingham's economic identity over the past decade. For executive participants, the location is practical as well as stimulating: accommodation, transport links, and the social infrastructure of a confident regional city are all immediately accessible. Nottingham also benefits from sitting at the centre of the East Midlands economy — one of the UK's largest regional economies — giving executive programming a natural industry ecosystem to draw on.

Faculty and Research

NBS employs a faculty of approximately 200 academics and professional teaching staff, many of whom carry significant industry or consultancy experience alongside their research credentials, which gives executive programmes a noticeably applied character rather than a purely theoretical one. The school's research is organised around several key clusters — including Responsible Business, International Business, Digital Business, and Leadership and People Management — and the Responsible Business cluster in particular has produced policy-relevant work on corporate governance, ethical leadership, and sustainable supply chains that feeds directly into executive teaching. NBS is also home to the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP), whose insights into decision-making and organisational behaviour are increasingly visible in leadership development design. Internationally, the school maintains research and teaching collaborations with institutions across Europe, Asia, and Africa, bringing comparative perspectives into what might otherwise be a purely domestic conversation.

Student Body, Alumni, and Career Outcomes

Executive cohorts at NBS are drawn predominantly from the UK, with a strong representation from the East Midlands and East of England — sectors including healthcare, local government, manufacturing, logistics, and professional services are particularly well represented, reflecting the economic profile of the region. NTU's overall alumni network exceeds 180,000 graduates globally, with a significant cluster in the UK Midlands and an increasingly active international presence, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia where NTU has long-standing partnership activity. Graduate employability is a genuine institutional strength: NTU has consistently appeared in the top ten UK universities for the proportion of graduates in graduate-level employment or further study within 15 months of graduating (Graduate Outcomes Survey, 2023). For executive participants specifically, the Senior Leader and degree apprenticeship programmes have placed cohorts into promoted roles and broadened responsibilities with employers ranging from NHS trusts and local authorities to private manufacturing firms and financial services organisations.