The appeal to schools is that these kinds of alliances broaden their geographic reach (and brand awareness) and help internationalise their faculty and student body at a relatively low cost.

For the prospective student the attraction is being involved not just with one but with two or even more high-profile business schools and the opportunity to study for at least some periods with students outside their own country.

It seems unlikely that these programmes will completely upstage the more traditional MBA. They can be complex and expensive to organise and run. Also, their appeal is to a particular type of student - one who is primarily “global” in outlook and perhaps intrigued by stepping outside the regular MBA scene.