Backpack-Excellence Scholarship for Women
Backpack-Excellence Scholarship for Women
Full funding for the #1 MBA in Europe
Looking to reignite your career, grow your impact, or take your leadership to the next level? The IMD MBA, named Program of the Year by Poets & Quants and ranked the #1 MBA in Europe by Bloomberg Businessweek, can help you get there.
This one-year, full-time program in Switzerland is designed to stretch your thinking and strengthen your ability to lead across geographies, industries and challenges. You’ll develop:
- A strong foundation in core business areas like strategy, finance and operations
- Transversal skills such as systems thinking, decision-making under pressure and influencing others
- Deeper self-awareness and leadership presence through executive coaching and behavioural insights
- Global business experience through international consulting projects, internships, and the Future Lab in Singapore
- A highly personal learning journey supported by small class sizes, close faculty contact and dedicated career coaching
If you’ve faced barriers that made an MBA feel out of reach, whether financial pressures, family responsibilities or career disruptions, you may be eligible for the BackPack-Excellence Scholarship for Women. This full scholarship supports driven women with leadership potential and a desire to create positive change. Scroll down for more details.
Opening doors to leadership
The BackPack-Excellence Scholarship for Women exists to create a fairer playing field for talented and driven women who have faced obstacles that made an MBA feel out of reach, whether financial constraints, family responsibilities, or past disruptions in their professional path.
By supporting women with leadership potential but limited ability to realize opportunities, this scholarship provides the skills, network, and confidence to lead with impact in business, public life, and beyond.
This scholarship is about empowering women to step forward as leaders, opening doors to new possibilities, and creating a ripple effect for others.
Learn more about the BackPack Foundation.
How to apply?
- Please complete the scholarship application in the Program section of your MBA application form.
- Submit a 500-word essay: “What pressing challenge, whether in your community or more broadly, are you most passionate about addressing? How do you think a BackPack-supported MBA at IMD will enable you to contribute to addressing that challenge?
- Share, dare and care are the fundamental values guiding every step of the BackPack Foundation. In a 90-120 second video, please describe a moment when you embodied one or more of these values. (In case of difficulty submitting a video please contact [email protected])
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a BackPack assessment.
- Please note that you may apply for multiple scholarships, however scholarships are non-cumulative, therefore you will not be selected for more than one. In addition. scholarships are reserved for those who are not sponsored by their company.
Meet our recent scholarship recipients
Please contact [email protected] to find out more information about the scholarship.
The IMD MBA BackPack-Excellence for Women will be managed and administered by the IMD Scholarship Foundation, established in accordance with Articles 80 of the Swiss Civil Code, with a registered office in Lausanne. The scholarship will be paid directly to IMD to cover the fees.
For more scholarship information, kindly refer to the scholarship section on our webpage.