MBA Programs

An MBA at TIAS Business School in the Netherlands is more than a title on your CV. It is an intensive learning journey that permanently broadens your view of organizations, leadership and society. You deepen your academic knowledge, work with current business cases and continuously explore what this means for your role as a leader in practice. 

You are challenged to question your assumptions, to see more clearly what your choices mean for your team, organization and environment, and to steer change more consciously. In doing so, you develop both analytical and strategic skills and a personal compass that helps you make decisions that are strong from a business perspective and responsible from a societal perspective. A TIAS MBA helps you accelerate your career while at the same time making a visibly greater impact on both business and society. 

Which format suits you best depends on your career stage, your ambitions and the time you have available to study alongside your work. 

Full time MBA: one year of full time study (in Utrecht) 

The Full time MBA is designed for professionals who already have a few years of work experience and want to give their career a powerful boost in a short period of time. You have had a taste of professional life, you sense that you are capable of more and you no longer want to learn only on the job, but to invest consciously for a full year in your knowledge, skills and international profile. 

You study full time for one year, in English, at the TIAS campus in Utrecht, together with participants from all over the world. Because you temporarily step out of your daily work environment, you create space to make clearer choices: where do you want to go, which sector or role suits you and how do you position yourself in the labour market in the Netherlands and internationally. The Full time MBA is particularly suitable if you want to accelerate your career, make a clear shift for example towards management, consultancy or another sector and are prepared to focus fully on your development for a year. 

Executive MBA: deepening your leadership while your career continues (in Tilburg) 

The part time Executive MBA is designed for experienced professionals in substantial roles, often with managerial or final responsibility, who want to deepen and broaden their leadership while their career continues. You are looking for more influence on strategic decisions, a broader view of business and society and a program that you can link directly to the issues in your own organization. 

You follow modules in compact blocks spread over a little more than two years and study mainly at the TIAS campus in Tilburg. Between these blocks you continue working as usual and immediately bring the insights from the sessions back to your team, your projects and your organization. Your work thus becomes an extension of your learning environment. In this way you build step by step towards your next career move within your current organization, in a new role or in a different context, in the Netherlands or abroad. 

If you are unsure whether a full time or an Executive MBA is the better choice, an exploratory conversation with a Program Adviser will help you explore which format best matches your experience, ambitions and schedule. 

Both programs offer the same strong academic foundation, international accreditations and a modular, English taught, part time format that you follow alongside your work. 

The main difference is that in the Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness, together with Wageningen Academy, we explicitly focus the content on the global food chain. The short descriptions below make the difference between both programs even clearer. 

The Executive MBA is a broad, cross sector management program for leaders from different types of organizations. You deepen your understanding of topics such as strategy, transformation, finance, innovation, digitalization and personal leadership and apply these to challenges in your own organization. 

In the Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness you look at the same business and leadership themes, but consistently through the lens of food and agri: food transition, sustainability, innovation across the value chain and food security. This makes this track particularly interesting if you already work in the agrifood sector and want to increase your impact at a strategic level specifically there. 

You follow TIAS MBA programs in the Netherlands, at easily accessible locations. The Full time MBA is taught at the TIAS campus in Utrecht. The Executive MBA and the Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness take place mainly at the TIAS campus in Tilburg and, for the Food and Agribusiness track, partly at the campus of Wageningen University and Research. The campuses are designed for intensive learning days, with modern facilities and space to work, meet and reflect.

All TIAS MBA programs are taught in English. This makes the programs accessible to participants from both the Netherlands and abroad and ensures that you work every day in an international learning environment.

A TIAS MBA strengthens your ability to look across disciplines and connect strategy, finance, innovation and people focused leadership. You learn to analyse more sharply, ask better questions and develop scenarios, and you practice making decisions that are sustainable from both a business and a societal perspective. This gives you more influence at the table, greater confidence as a leader and a stronger profile in the job market.

For your organization, an MBA means that you bring current theory and best practices directly into the workplace. Cases, assignments and your final project are often based on challenges from your own organization. As a result, your MBA translates into concrete improvements, for example in customer focus, digitalization, sustainability, collaboration across the value chain or organizational structure. Many TIAS alumni indicate that during or shortly after their MBA they achieve a promotion, a role change or an expansion of responsibilities.

In the TIAS MBA programs you meet a diverse group of professionals who are all looking for the same things: more influence, more depth and more meaning in their work.

In the Full time MBA you study together with participants from different countries who on average have several years of work experience and want to give their career a powerful international impulse in one year.

In the Executive MBA and the Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness you mainly study with experienced managers, entrepreneurs and senior specialists, usually with around ten years or more of work experience. They come from sectors such as corporate business, government, healthcare, industry, professional services and of course the entire food chain, from cooperatives to agritech and retail.

This mix of backgrounds enriches the learning experience. You learn not only from faculty, but also from people who are grappling with similar leadership issues in very different contexts.

Your schedule is probably already packed with deadlines and meetings. The Executive MBA and the Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness are therefore designed so that you can follow them alongside a demanding job and family life. You attend classes in compact teaching blocks on the campus in Tilburg and, for the Food and Agribusiness track, also in Wageningen.

Between these blocks you deepen your understanding of the material, often using issues from your own organization. Your work then becomes not an obstacle but a place where you experiment with new insights. Because you know the teaching blocks and assignments well in advance, you can plan your studies around busy projects and important moments at home. The workload is demanding but manageable for those who make a conscious choice and involve the people around them in that decision.

A TIAS MBA is internationally recognized and opens doors to roles in which you can play a broader part in decisions on strategy and change. Alumni of the Full time MBA often move into new roles or sectors, for example into consultancy, management positions or international roles.

The Executive MBA scores highly on career development in recent international rankings, which is reflected in promotions, role changes and greater responsibility shortly after completing the program.

For international participants, the connection with the Dutch labour market is also attractive. The Netherlands offers opportunities to stay and work after completing a master’s program, and TIAS supports you with career services, networking events and contacts with employers so that you can make the most of those opportunities.

Tuition fees differ per MBA program and per intake year. The current amounts can be found on the program pages of the Full time MBA, Executive MBA and Executive MBA in Food and Agribusiness. 

TIAS understands that an MBA is a significant investment. That is why you can usually pay your tuition in instalments spread over the duration of the program. On the TIAS website you will find the most up to date information about financing your studies. 

Do you have questions about financing your MBA 
In a non binding advisory meeting we are happy to explore the available options together with you. 

TIAS offers scholarships for qualified candidates in the Full time MBA and the Executive MBA. In this way, TIAS aims to keep high quality education accessible and to deliberately build a diverse international group of participants from different countries, sectors and backgrounds.

Scholarships are awarded based on your overall profile: your academic background, the quality of your application, your motivation and how you present yourself in the admissions interview.