The Shard building in London
© FT

Warwick Business School is planning to open its second UK campus in London, in the iconic Shard building, the capital’s tallest building.

The school is applying for planning permission to convert the lion’s share of the 17th floor of the Shard into teaching and office space, including two lecture theatres and student breakout rooms. Warwick will teach the part-time versions of its MSc in Finance and MSc in Human Resource Management there, as well as its Executive MBA - an MBA for working managers.

The Shard’s location on the increasingly fashionable South Bank, with direct links to the City of London, will put Warwick in direct competition with Cass Business School, just across the river. Like Warwick, Cass has a strong EMBA programme, as well as a portfolio of finance programmes, including a master of science in quantitative finance offered jointly with Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business. Chicago Booth also teaches its EMBA programme in the City.

Warwick’s move is one of several by UK business schools to expand in London. London Business School has recently begun the multimillion pound refurbishment of Old Marylebone Town Hall as a teaching facility. Once the refit is complete in 2017, LBS will have increased its teaching space by 70 per cent.

Cass has also recently opened additional teaching facilities in the City for executive short courses. Warwick is expected to teach executive education in the Shard in due course.

Assuming planning permission is granted, Warwick plans to launch its first programmes in the Shard in January 2015.

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