Study at your own pace for an MBA
Not everyone can take a year out of work and pay fees of up to £70,000 or more to study for a
Master of Business Administration. Affordable ways of learning are now making MBAs accessible to all HERE is only so much you are sponsored by an employer. Howcan learn on the job. For ever, if you choose to study part-time, those wanting to progress you can continue earning and keep into senior leadership posiyour position on the career ladder. tions and the boardroom, a Even so, do not underestimate the Master of Business Administration academic rigour of an MBA and the time (MBA) can equip them with the skills commitment involved. That is why the they need. entry requirements generally stipulate
From strategic management to marthat you have at least three or four years keting, an MBA not only enables profesin a senior management role and a first sionals to gain key management skills degree or equivalent. needed at the top, it usually also offers Before enrolling, consider carefully them opportunities to put the theories how you will fit your course around learned into practice by applying them your life and also gain the support of to real-life scenarios. your employer.
While the norm is still to study fullThe options are: time and with the world’s top business Condensed: A few MBAs can be studschools charging £70,000 or more, an ied on Fridays and Saturdays with a MBA can often seem out of reach. couple of residential weekends and in
However, MBAs are becoming more as little as 12 months. accessible in a number of ways. Distance/online: This enables you to
The time commitment: A full-time study at your own pace — taking two to MBA usually takes around 12 months seven years to complete your MBA. and means you will generally have to Blended: A mixture of online and give up your job (and salary) while classroom/lecture-based learning. learning and paying the fees, unless you Another advantage of distance or
Tonline learning is that it is more affordable, with MBAs starting from around £10,000.
If you are studying for an MBA, you can now cover some or all of the cost with a postgraduate student loan. Find out more at gov.uk/postgraduate-loan. If the flexibility and affordability make an MBA more appealing, what else do you need to consider?
The reputation and rankings: The first step is to look at the business school itself. Is it accredited by the AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS? The best have triple accreditation.
Professional accreditations: Some
MBAs will give you two qualifications. For example, a Chartered Management Institute Level 5 Award.
Networking: Meeting fellow students with ambitions to rise to more senior leadership positions can give you access to high-flyers.