Senior executives wondering how to steer their organisations successfully through an increasingly uncertain world could do a lot worse than spend a few days at Oxford University’s new Global Leadership Centre. Part of the university’s Saïd Business School, the centre offers courses such as “Leading in the age of AI and global disruption”  and the “AI strategy and leadership programme”. 

It is aimed at senior leaders in public and private sector organisations with bespoke courses also on offer. Most of these last for a few days, with longer courses broken up into blocks of a similar amount of time. The idea is that executives can break from the pressures of the office to learn, network and relax in pleasant surroundings. 

Courses are residential, so most of the space in the building is taken up by bedrooms, with the lower storeys dedicated to a dining room, bar, gym and break-out spaces. Indeed, the ambience is rather more like a sophisticated five-star hotel than a place of education.