Meet our students
Meet current and previous International Full-time MBA students.
Why this programme
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Class profile
The world in your classroom
The International Full-time MBA is built on diversity. Diversity of thought, of experience, of culture, of background, of perspective. Our students come from all over the world. From a myriad of industry backgrounds. From a vast diversity of roles and functions. Each person brings his or her unique perspective, outlook and experience to a rich and challenging interchange that will upturn your preconceptions and broaden your thinking.
To view the full class profile of Full-time MBA Class of 2024, please click here.

Curriculum
The International Full-time MBA is a 12-month learning journey that will change you and change your future. You will get into the issues that really matter. You will learn, debate, discuss, exchange, persuade and bring it all together with enough international exposure to pursue your career in any sector, management role and location in the world.
Module 1 (January - March)
The programme starts with laying the foundations for effective management in an ever-changing and complex world: how to make critical decisions using an analytical approach, how to read and use data, and how to work with and manage diverse teams.
Coursework includes:
- Financial Management: Accounting
- Management Science
- Organisational Behaviour
- Quantitative Platform of Business
- Personal Leadership Development
Module 2 (April - June)
Next, we introduce the core business areas. Through case studies and lively classroom discussions, you will explore the most relevant management issues of the day in their proper context.
Coursework includes:
- Financial Management 2
- Marketing Management
- Operations Management
- Strategic Management
- Personal Leadership Development
The Impact Experience
The Impact Experience takes place during the second module, before commencing the coursework. In this practical project you are required to integrate and apply your knowledge. During this project you will team up to tackle major societal challenges. You will formulate a challenge, generate ideas and come up with creative solutions with a positive impact - in a very short space of time.
Module 3 (June - July)
In Module 3 we bring the core business concepts into clearer focus by adding four layers of context: What is the role of the economic environment, how to facilitate and nurture innovation, and how to manage organisations and processes sustainably.
Coursework includes:
- Economic Environment of Business
- Human Resource Management
- Innovation Management
- Business of Sustainability
- Personal Leadership Development
Module 4 (July - August)
Advanced Courses
In this module we dive deeper into specific business areas. During this time, you will choose a career concentration course.
- Living Management Project
- Advanced Courses (choice of 1):
- Advanced Finance
- Advanced Strategy
- Advanced Marketing
- Advanced Supply Chain Management
- Advanced Sustainability
Living Management Project
In module 4 you are tested on your ability to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired so far. An intense, four-week project that requires you to work in teams to devise a solution to a real business problem within a company and present your recommendations to the company’s executives and other panel members. Experience the typical challenges of a consultancy project – inadequate information and resources, tight deadlines and cultural differences between your team members.
Study Trip (August)
A week abroad, learning about how other cultures do business. This immersive learning experience exposes you to the complexities of global business and gives you the opportunity to explore specific industries and themes.
* Study trips are subject to rules and regulations around international travel.
Module 5 (September - December)
MBA Electives
Every year we offer around 20 electives which allow you to specialise in topics of your choice. The electives include professional skills and current topics across five streams of specialisations.
- Electives (Choice of 3)
- Personal Leadership Development
The Craft of Management
Integrative Learning, Critical Reflection and Impactful Action
Running across your MBA journey at RSM is an integrative programme that empowers you to re-evaluate each of your core subjects as a function of the whole and critically reflect on how the different pieces fit together and where you will need to apply your own personal touch in order to create holistic and sustainable value.
Personal Leadership Development
Leadership is comprehensively integrated across the entire MBA learning experience. We call this Personal Leadership Development (PLD). Every class, every assignment and every project is informed by a leadership development component: a challenge to apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios. To make decisions based on what you know and what is in front of you. To think like a real business leader.
The Personal Leadership Development programme will help you build your leadership competencies via dialogue and interchange with inspirational peers and leaders from a broad diversity of backgrounds and cultures.
International Exchange
Spend a term at one of the 40+ leading business schools in RSM’s network.
* Exchange options are offered for those who are interested, at the end of the programme.
Faculty
Big thinkers. Industry experts. Exceptional scholars.
RSM offers a distinct intellectual culture based on the values of being critical, creative, caring and collaborative, and we are committed to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for our mission.
We believe that leadership can be taught through a combination of intellectual and practical challenges – like those encountered when working in diverse teams – that can foster creative new approaches in business. And we encourage a flexible, broad and sometimes iconoclastic mindset in business practice and research – from the perspective of being a force for positive change in the world at an individual and organisational level.
Research and education by our world-class researchers and academics are among the best in the world, perfected at the Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM). Our think-tank is ranked as one of the top 10 research institutes in Europe.
At RSM, we are proud to claim:
Learning experience
So much more than a classroom
The MBA classes are important of course – and ours rank among the top international business schools globally. But standing out in the competitive world of business takes more. You have to step out of your comfort zone and into the world around you. Students come to us from all over the world and from a vast spectrum of industries, sectors and roles. In class, in project work, on campus, on treks – the rich exchange of ideas and approach will push your boundaries and broaden your mindset exponentially.
Study Tours
Our study tours are immersive learning experiences that expose you to the complexities of global business. Previous international study tours and topics included:
The Living Management Project
Every year, companies come to Rotterdam looking for help with specific business challenges. And every year, they leave with innovative new solutions developed by MBA students at RSM. This intensive, four-week project requires you to work in teams to devise a solution to a real business problem within a company, before presenting your recommendations to the company’s executives and other panel members. You will experience – and learn how to tackle – the typical challenges of a consultancy project, like inadequate information and resources, tight deadlines, and cultural differences between you and your team members.
International Exchange
As part of the programme you can opt for an international exchange. Spend your fourth term at one of the more than 100 leading business schools in the RSM network.
Events and Networking
Take full advantage of the unmistakable energy on our campus. Dive into events and networking opportunities hosted by the MBA Student Association and MBA Career Centre.
What is your ‘I WILL’?
RSM’s I WILL movement allows you to define your goals, your ambition, your drive. It’s our forward-thinking community that asks you to say something about your future. Your I WILL statement becomes part of the spirit of RSM’s diverse community of students, researchers, staff, professors, alumni and others related to the school. Making a public commitment to your goal will allow you to achieve it faster and better. What is your goal?
Leadership development
What kind of leader will you be?
Leadership is comprehensively integrated across the entire MBA learning experience. We call this Personal Leadership Development (PLD). Every class, every assignment and every project is informed by a leadership development component: a challenge to apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios. To make decisions based on what you know and what is in front of you. To think like a real business leader.
The Personal Leadership Development programme will help you build your leadership competencies via dialogue and interchange with inspirational peers and leaders from a broad diversity of backgrounds and cultures.
Leading knowledge
Our faculty and professional coaches have their fingers on the newest insights and best practices from all over the world. You will have access to all of it through the PLD programme.
Leading in action
Apply your managerial savvy through active lessons – such as in-class exercises, simulations, group work, peer reviews and mentoring opportunities.
Leading solutions
Put your critical thinking to the test. For four weeks, you will work in teams to solve a real-world business problem for a real firm, and present your solution to executives.
The Craft of Management
Integrative Learning, Critical Reflection and Impactful Action
Taking your MBA at RSM exposes you to the biggest, most relevant ideas shaping modern, global business and challenges you to dive deep into the theories, the problems and the technical issues that, as a future decision-maker, you will have to navigate. But becoming an impactful manager is not just about mastering the granularity of today’s challenges within specific problem domains. Modern management is also a craft that requires you to be able to step back, critically assess the big picture (using the different tools acquired during your MBA) see the risks and the opportunities ahead and join the dots that connect them.
Running across your MBA journey at RSM is an integrative programme that empowers you to re-evaluate each of your core subjects as a function of the whole and critically reflect on how the different pieces fit together and where you will need to apply your own personal touch in order to create holistic and sustainable value.
The Craft of Management is the red thread during your MBA. Each session invites you to question what you learn in the broader context of today's management challenges and responsibilities. You will be challenged again to reflect on why you are pursuing an MBA, what you hope to achieve and what kind of impact you aim to have after the MBA.
You will explore:
- The taken-for-granted assumptions (including your own) that are associated with conventional management thinking
- The important and complex roles that organisations and their leadership have in propagating current systems of management—for better or worse
- The need to be an open and engaged force for positive impact as a future manager