Heart of Europe Gets its First Business School

BRUSSELS, September 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Despite widespread reports of the first significant drop in applications for MBA programmes in a decade, one major business school is bucking the trend with a move to Europe's political capital.

The move is part of the former Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School's rebrand to become Vlerick Business School - the culmination of a radical two year transformation project involving stakeholders, students, staff, journalists, accrediting bodies and even other universities. The change in name is accompanied by a bold new typeface and bright colour - setting it apart from the typically bland and conformist advertising of most business schools.

Dean of the school, Philippe Haspeslagh, says the rebrand goes deeper than simply giving the school a facelift: "Two socio-economic crises in a row have made companies, business schools and individuals think about what it is they do and why. Because of this, we've thoroughly scrutinised our organisation and processes from programme design and delivery, to our reputation and international visibility."

As well as a brand new name and campus, this process has included:

• A reworked MBA curriculum
• Redesigned Executive Education programmes 
• New research partnerships
• The further development of international offerings in Russia and China.
• Deeper integration of the school's extensive alumni network

The rebrand has been built around Vlerick's four core values of openness, vitality, pragmatism, and internationality.

As well as campuses in its root cities of Leuven and Gent and now Brussels, Vlerick also operates in Beijing and St Petersburg.

Andrew Crisp, Managing Director of specialist education consultancy Carrington Crisp, says, "Within Belgium Vlerick is world famous - but not yet in the world itself. Despite its MBA being ranked as one of the best value programmes in the world by the FT and its reputation for the high quality of its teaching, Vlerick has remained something of a hidden gem in the business education market. This rebrand represents a significant part of an on-going project to give Vlerick the international presence and recognition its teaching and research merits."

Philippe Haspeslagh agrees. "We are not pursuing growth for growth's sake. The rebranding is the final phase of creating a lifelong learning journey for our students and alumni. We are at the start of a whole new chapter for Vlerick Business School."

For more information, please contact Ian Hawkings at BlueSky PR -ian@bluesky-pr.net  or +44(0)1582-790-704.