Manchester's Mojo Rising

Last year, MBA grads from the University of Manchester Business School saw a 93% placement rate. About 85% of Manchester students are international, and finding a job is now easier because of the Highly Skilled Migrant Program, a 2005 legislative measure that allows any graduate of a top MBA program to stay and work in Britain.

Clare Hudson has been director of Career Management Services for the University of Manchester's Business School for just six months, after spending the past three years in the career-services office. Hudson earned a degree in politics and modern history from the University of Manchester and worked for five years as a headhunter for British Nuclear Fuels. She's an avid golfer and is sure to promote her MBA students on the links and elsewhere. With lots of international recruiting experience, Hudson returned to Manchester and will be using the summer break to build up more services for international students, focusing on work in North America and Asia.

Hudson recently spoke with BusinessWeek intern Kristin Dew. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation:

How do you assist all of your international students?
We make sure they understand the Highly Skilled Migrant Program and help students with contract negotiation because the contracts here are quite detailed, and many students haven't experienced that before.

Do you offer any international networking opportunities?
Our students have an opportunity to go on exchange, and we get exchange students from other business schools. Our networking for international students is predominantly done through our alumni because we have about 20,000 alums all over the world. We also take students to international career fairs, but most students want to stay and work in the country.

What companies recruit most frequently at Manchester?
We have companies from all over the world, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ), A.T. Kearney, KPMG, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley (MS ), Citigroup (C ), AstraZeneca (AZN )...

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