In a move believed to be unique among UK business schools, Cambridge EMBA graduates now have the chance to take elective courses alongside current EMBA students, offering an opportunity to keep abreast of the latest research and thinking, catch up with former colleagues, and make contacts in other cohorts.

Subjects for the free electives vary from year to year and are chosen to best complement the interests of each cohort. A successful trial of the electives offered subjects such as Strategy and Organisation for the Information Age; How to Start Technology Companies; and Fast Strategy, Intrapreneurship, and Business Instinct.

Take-up has been impressive: out of approximately 200 graduates, a third decided to return in 2014 to take an elective. Among them was Matthew Condy (Cambridge EMBA 2011), who found the experience helpful in preparing for a change of career direction.

He says. "I took an elective in Consumer Behaviour, as I’m transitioning from government consulting to business and management consulting. In my previous industry, I was dealing with government clients and politicians, and they behave in ways I’ve studied for a long time. With more commercial ventures, there’s a whole new customer base, so there was tremendous value in this elective for me. We examined consumer behaviour from a commercial standpoint and did some case studies about how businesses make decisions based on consumer wants and needs, or how they want to be positioned in the marketplace. It was very interesting."

Shiri Zilberman (Cambridge EMBA 2011), project manager at semiconductor company Broadcom, relished the chance to sample more electives than her EMBA programme had permitted. "I had to pick two electives when I was doing the programme, and afterwards there was a lot of feedback from the other participants about the courses they’d done. I felt I’d really be interested in doing some of those courses myself, and when I came back this year, I was able to do the Fast Strategy, Intrapreneurship, and Business Instinct elective."

There is an added incentive for alumni to return: the weekends also include a formal dinner at a Cambridge college and a high-profile speaker. The last occasion included António Horta-Osório, CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, as guest of honour.  

The elective and dinner give alumni valuable opportunities to network and catch up with old friends. "I was very happy to see that around fifty per cent of my class had come back," says Matthew Condy. "It’s always good to catch up with old classmates, but we also had the chance to meet and co-mingle with people from other classes who had come back, as well as with the two current cohorts. This sort of cross-pollination between different groups is just great."