Hult Business School’s visit and challenge

There was a buzz around school this week because Hult University visted to talk to our students about the unversity and its courses but also to launch the inspiring HULT Business Challenge.

Hult International Business School is a business school. With 6 global locations it has grown from its single Boston location to 5 campuses in San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai and two rotation centers in New York and Sao Paulo.

In 2005, after the accreditation of Hult’s one year MBA program by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), Hult began opening new campuses. The Shanghai campus opened in 2007. The following year Hult became the first American educational institution officially approved in the United Arab Emirates when its Dubai campus opened. In 2009, Hult acquired the former facilities of Huron University USA in London to open its London campus. Hult’s San Francisco campus opened in 2010.

Hult and EF Academy Torbay have always had strong links and many of our business and economics students have gone on to become undergraduates at Hult and have studied beyond that in Masters courses. Some of the first students to have gone through this process our now leading businesses both internationally and in their home countries. This shows the how the relationships that we have forged together is changing the lives of the students who come to us with barely a qualification to their names.

The event kicked off with a speech from our Head Teacher and she told students about this relationship drawing on her long experience working in EF Academy Torbay and she spoke of her pride at former students from Torbay who reached the final of the Hult challenge.

The students were really impressed with the global nature of the business courses and the diversity of the programs that Hult have to offer but also the opportunity for real life experience in a professional business environment.

Then came the really exciting part and it began with a ‘thought experiment’ about decision making which prompted the students to consider how they make decisions and how this relates to the world of business.

Hult International Business School is the lead sponsor of the Hult Prize an annual international case competition launched in 2010 that asks students to find solutions to global social challenges. The organization is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. Teams from business schools around the world compete at one of five regional events to develop the best solutions to that year’s social challenge. The best teams from each regional event advance to a global final, at which a single winning team is chosen.

Our students were really enthusiastic about this challenge and the students couldn’t wait to get started. We all had crepes with fruit and chocolate afterwards and this gave students the opportunity to ask questions both about Hult and about the challenge and it was a perfect end the day.