For business schools
For business schools
A note on how we work, for admissions teams and programme staff who come across our name.
What we do
An admissions practice, not an agency
Next Stage Oxford advises individual candidates — predominantly senior professionals based in Japan, and increasingly applicants elsewhere in Asia and Europe — on Executive MBA and MBA applications. Our principal is a graduate of the Oxford Saïd Executive MBA and an Alumni Ambassador of Pembroke College.
The practice is deliberately small. Two named counsellors handle every engagement; we accept no more than five candidates a year into our Oxford and Cambridge programme.
How we work
Three commitments
The application is the candidate’s own work
We advise on strategy, structure and clarity. We ask the questions that surface a candidate’s material, we comment on drafts, and our native-speaker counsellor reviews language and argument. We do not write essays on a candidate’s behalf, and we do not submit applications for them.
A candidate who could not defend every line of their application at interview has not been well served by us.
We advise candidates to engage with you directly
Early contact with admissions and with recruiters is, in our experience, the single most useful thing an applicant can do. We encourage campus visits, information sessions and official CV review services rather than substituting for them.
We say no
Our Oxford and Cambridge programme is offered on a selective basis, and we decline candidates whose profile is not yet ready. Where the right advice is to apply in a later cycle, that is the advice we give.
Our candidates
Who we send you
Typically professionals in their thirties and forties with fifteen or more years of experience: executives in Japanese and international corporations, founders, and qualified professionals. Many are the first person from their organisation to apply to an overseas programme, and are navigating employer sponsorship, family relocation and a demanding role at the same time.
Admissions to date include Oxford Saïd, Cambridge Judge and London Business School.
Working with us
Enquiries from institutions
We are glad to support information sessions, admissions events and alumni activity in Japan, and to speak with programme staff about the Japanese applicant market.