Cass is expanding the number of full time MBA scholarships available to women.

The School is set to increase its Women in Business Scholarships from three in the current academic year to four in 2012. It means the number of full-time scholarships awarded to women will have quadrupled since 2010 when a single grant was available.

The increase comes at a time when the number of women studying on the School's full-time MBA programme has jumped from 38 per cent in 2010 to 45 per cent in 2011.

Dr Sionade Robison, Director of Cass's Full Time MBA course, said it was important to attract more female MBA applicants to help close the gender gap at the top tiers of business.

"Business schools have an important role to play in helping more women to reach senior leadership roles, and for many, an MBA is a ladder that enables them to bypass the glass ceiling.

"Evidence from the Association of MBAs' global 2010 Careers Survey shows the MBA qualification continues to make a significant impact on salaries and career progression, particularly many years after graduation.

"By expanding the number of scholarships available to women, we aim to help highly experienced and openly ambitious female applicants to accelerate their careers while improving the overall representation of women at senior levels in the City."

The Women in Business Scholarship is open to high-achieving women who demonstrate potential to excel on the course and in their ensuing career. Each scholarship is worth £17,250.

Expansion of the scholarship comes alongside record growth in the number of female students enrolling in Cass's full-time programme. Explaining the rise, Cass MBA Programme Director, Erica Hensens: "We have taken a number of recruitment and marketing steps to debunk the myth that MBA programmes are male-dominated.

"This includes holding specific events targeted at female applicants, such as our MBA Women as Leaders seminars which examined the dynamics of leadership from a female perspective.

"We have also sought to make the course more attractive and accessible to women by emphasising the proportion of female academics on our MBA teaching staff and fostering an atmosphere of collaboration rather than excessive competitiveness which some women may feel more comfortable with."

Find out more about the Women in Business Scholarships