Open EMBA programmes may be in the majority, but single-company courses retain their supporters – and may be the better option in certain cases.

“The great big, behemoth [single-company] programmes are probably on the way out,” says Chris Bones, dean of Henley Business School at the University of Reading, in the UK. “Sheep-dipping large numbers of people through a reasonably generic qualification is not, I think, the best investment you can make if you are going to do it without a purpose.”