Master of Business Administration (MBA) is an internationally recognized degree, which has become one of the most popular professional degree programs in the contemporary world. MBAs are mostly taught in English and prepare students for careers in business and management by helping them develop technical managerial and leadership skills. Students develop these skills by working on real-world consulting projects and exploring different areas of the business field. The core subjects studied as part of an MBA program include accounting and finance, economics, marketing and operations. MBA programs usually offer students the opportunity to pick optional subjects as well, which allows students to dive deeper into areas that interest them the most and are relevant to their career aspirations.
Higher Education Institutions that offer MBA programs are highly likely to require students to have completed an internship at an organization or to have a few years of professional work experience.
Executive MBAs are also available at Institutions globally. They are different from the traditional MBA because they are aimed specifically at individuals who have extensive professional experience.
Having graduated with an MBA degree students have a wide choice of career options. They can find employment across different industries in both the public and private sectors and are not strictly limited to a career in business. MBAs also provide students with the opportunity to explore different business functions, such as accounting, operations, marketing, etc., and understand how each of them works. This increases their resilience and flexibility and enables them to work in different departments of an organization.
Throughout their programs, students gain practical experience and valuable skills as well as tackle challenges faced by business professionals in a real-world business setting by working on consulting projects. They develop important skills and knowledge thanks to the collaborative work with classmates which is common in MBA programs.
MBA programs also offer multiple opportunities for students to expand their network. Meeting people who they may collaborate with in the future creates many professional opportunities, such as finding a new job, transitioning to another industry or starting a business.
Additionally, the completion of an MBA degree is a prerequisite for quicker career progression and higher salaries. Individuals become more likely to land jobs high up in the organizational hierarchy, such as executive positions, or find employment abroad by completing an MBA degree program.
Last but not least, there are numerous part-time and online MBA degree programs, which offer high flexibility. Such programs enable individuals who are currently developing their professional careers to fit their studies into their busy schedules. Students on such programs are able to do the required work at the most convenient time and place for them without having to commit a full year (or two) to their studies. Sometimes MBA programs may be offered in the form of a hybrid between online and on-campus delivery, which provides the best of both worlds. Students enjoy the flexibility of an on-line program but also get that on-campus experience.
The average duration of a full-time MBA program is 18 months (or about 2 years). However, 1-year MBA programs are gaining popularity around the world. It is important to note that the duration of MBA programs may be largely influenced by the mode of study (part-time or full-time) and the type of the program (e.g. online or hybrid).
The traditional MBA is followed by EMBAs, which take 20 months to complete, and professional MBAs, which take 26 months to complete.
You can do a lot of things right, but if the core of your program is not strong, auxiliary benefits will not matter.
The largest issues are the structure and content of the program. “Learning by doing” is driven by their 3 main, consultancy projects. The problem is that the program takes away class time and allocates group work time for these projects in its stead. Understanding that my opinion does not include experience from other programs, you will miss out on fundamental business concepts and important learnings because of this structure. The number of operations and marketing classes are laughable (roughly 3 sessions each with professors) due to these consultancy projects. It feels as if you pay money to work on medium or easy difficulty projects while missing out on academics that you will be expected to know once you get out into industry. Furthermore, the classes that you do have regularly are boiled down to a theoretical, almost artistic decision-making class, and a class that spends its time talking about the negatives of shareholder primacy and financialization while mentioning the common, starry-eyed stakeholder solution which is not practically explored. This program lives and breathes ESG, so much so that you miss out on even more academics. Management accounting, a wildly important topic, was reduced to only 4 class sessions. Cost accounting actually spent sessions talking about how to look good on virtual meetings and how to write essays. This just is not acceptable for me. Strategy and corporate finance have been a breath of fresh air, but the rest of the offering has largely lacked substance.
You get your MBA only once – it is not practical to transfer schools like you could have in your undergraduate programs. Look for a program that spends time teaching you the fundamentals. I encourage you to really think twice about committing to this program.
View moreStudying at this university has been an experience. It’s been an intense 45 days and I would definitely recommend it to friends and family. The project-based learning has made it easy to develop interpersonal relationships and build the skills required to lead others.
View moreThe calibre of my fellow students was high and I enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. Some of the modules were not relevant to the current economic world order and much of the reference material was published before the Great Financial Crash or Digital Revolution. The facilities are utterly disgusting. Mice, no air con, poor Wifi and overflowing toilets. You are locked up for 16 hours a day in a Victorian school house that looks like a prison. Windows can’t be opened because of traffic noise. By late afternoon in summer the atmosphere and smell is overwhelming. The online lectures are a joke; poorly prepared, badly delivered, ponderous, repetitive, and irrelevant most of the time. Exam questions are referred to an online notice board which is simply ignored. Do yourself a favour and scrutinise this institution closely before you make a choice. Do not be persuaded by ‘the Manchester Method’ which is fictitious. The School prides itself on its FT ranking but is strangely mute on the subject of the Economist rating which is below Strathclyde Poly and similarly august seats of learning.
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