10 Most Affordable Master’s in Human Resources

Deciding where you are going to study is an important decision. You have to take many factors into accounts, such as the ranking of the university, degree program, the content of degree, and personal factors. Of course, money also plays a role: How much do you need to pay, and how cheap or expensive is living going to be? Well, you’re in luck! EDUopinions is going to tell you all about the 10 most affordable master’s in Human Resources.

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You have decided to study human resource management for your graduate degree. Congratulations. It’s a great profession. I know it, I learned it, and I teach HR analytics. But I’m biased. That’s ok, in HR you’ll have to make many decisions about people. Recognizing your own biases and those unconscious biases of others early on will help you be a better HR professional.

For long HR was a support function. It was hidden somewhere in HQ, looked down by other functions. But it is becoming more prominent, moving away from purely recruiting and making sure employment laws are followed, to getting a seat at the management table and be included in strategic decisions.

Where to study HR

Where you are going to study HR depends on your preference for location, your financial means, companies you like to work for, and personal situation. For example, do you want to do an MBA in human resources or a masters in hr? Should the master be a master of science (MSc) culminating in a research paper, or a master of arts?

The content in most hr master programs is similar. You might want to pay attention to the emphasis on industrial relations or employment laws that are being taught. These can vary slightly in Europe.

HR is one of the main disciplines of a master in a business program and you can pretty much study it anywhere. To help you make a selection, below is a list of ten potential places you can do a degree in hr.

A non-exclusive list of decision criteria

Most of the listed courses are offered in English, but some, like in the Deusto Business School, gives you the opportunity to practice your Spanish while learning HR. Other universities offer short course relevant for HR managers, like at Porto Business School. If you have no business experience or business degree, the New European College offers a degree for you. This college also offers a master of arts in HR instead of a master in science, which means it will be less research-focused.

When looking at programme website, important is to check if work experience is required. Often for MBA or executive education, you need to have worked for a couple of years after your studies.

What city can you afford?

If you decide to do a degree which takes several weeks you need to be able to support yourself. While some degrees are part-time, giving you time to work next to your study, others are full time. Before moving to a city for studying, check out the living costs in that city. Expat sites provide a great indication of how much everything, from coffee to shampoo costs. The European Commission also provides information, but only on a country basis. For most cities in the table below we could find a cost of living index, taken from Expatistan. The higher the score, the more expensive the city. Studying in Spain is cheaper than in London or Dublin. But in Dublin, you’ll be studying in a city with major tech companies, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

Do not just look at the cost of living and the cost of the program, but also consider the non-financial opportunities you will have, such as access to employers, cultural scene, travel hub. In the same way, don’t overlook non-financial weaknesses, such as distance to family and language problems.

What now?

To sum it up, doing a master degree in HR, MBA or MSc is affordable in Spain and Germany. But studying in Spain can mean that you have to study in Spanish. Have a look at the table below to get a feeling for tuition costs and then check out the cities to test where you can see yourself studying.

Once you selected a couple of universities who offer interesting HR programs, check out on EDUopinions what other students say about these places. Reading reviews is crucial before making decisions.

Nova School of Business & Economics

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