So you want to do an MBA? You’re spoiled for choice: there are nearly 100 MBA courses offered in the UAE by over 65 institutions, some of the them the best in the business
An MBA, or Master of Business Administration, is an internationally recognised passport to a successful career in business generally, and management in particular. MBA programmes vary widely, but in principle they all cover the major aspects of business: ranging from accounting, finance and statistics to strategy, marketing and organisational behaviour.
How MBAs differ
There are a lot of variations within an MBA
Content: MBAs typically involve a core of modules, some electives, and a final project and/or dissertation. Different schools have different core modules and electives.
Specialisation: Most MBAs are general and can apply to any role in business, but there are specialised MBAs in functional areas like marketing or human resources – and increasingly in quite specific fields like destination management or airline operations. Generally these courses involve a core set of modules with specialisation in year two.
The general MBA is a better bet if you don’t know what you want to be doing in, say, 10 years’ time. A two-year course is often a transformative experience, and in any case most MBAs allow you to choose one or more specialisations in your final year.
Delivery: MBAs can be taken as conventional full-time academic courses, in which case they are generally one or two years in length. But recognising that many students will have to combine MBA study with a full-time job, there are usually part-time options which mean the required modules can be completed over two or more years. Weekend and after-hours tuition is often available.
EMBA: The Executive or Professional MBA is explicitly part-time, a programme designed to fit modules into a businessperson’s working life and combine academic insights and the real world.
Qualification: The standard MBA is a post-graduate degree, which in theory means you must already have at least one undergraduate degree before you qualify. A few schools will accept you with several years of work experience in place of this, and a handful will insert a pre-MBA course into the opening months of your MBA.
With EMBAs the requirement for a degree is less important – and for most EMBAs it’s actually secondary to the real world of work: some courses won’t accept you without three or five years of management-level experience.
So should you think about doing an MBA?
Yes if you want to make a career in management. More than 150,000 MBA degrees are conferred each year around the world; that’s competition. The MBA is becoming a must-have for corporate advancement.
On the other hand … more than half the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies do not have an MBA. In theory, it’s not a prerequisite for success.
Yes if you have the time. It’s a major commitment. MBA programmes are notoriously difficult with long hours of class time and rigorous group work.
On the other hand … the one-year MBAs are particularly intensive; you’ll be working evenings and weekends. The same applies to part-time MBAs and EMBAs, plus you’ll have to find a couple of weeks a year from your holiday entitlement to attend full-on school and project sessions.
Leanne Hucker is halfway through an MBA course with Murdoch University, and she’s definitely finding that the course commitments are tough.
“As a full time employee it is not easy,” she says. “I have in excess of 12 contact hours a week, plus study, plus time for assignments.
“I continue to work full time and have simply changed my hours with the support of my line manager to attend classes. I finish work at 5pm and head off to Murdoch three days a week from 6pm-9pm”.
And SP Jain graduate Maitri Saxena agrees: “In hindsight, I don’t know how I did it! I was at university six evenings a week, every other week, for two years. In the intervening weeks we had to finish up assignments to meet the deadlines.
“I can’t say it was easy. But our course was among the most rigorous EMBA programmes in the UAE, and once you’ve made the choice to pursue education and work simultaneously it’s always going to be a struggle to adapt – no matter what course you do and what stage of your career you do it at.
Maitri’s advice? “Define your goals before embarking on an MBA programme. Then you can keep reminding yourself of them when school, social, family and work commitments bog you down.”
Yes if it’s the right time for you in your career
On the other hand … To get the most out of an MBA course requires a certain amount of context: you have to understand the basics of management before you can apply the academic disciplines.
“I think it helped that I waited for a few years, gathered some work experience, and then started my MBA,” says Maitri. “From age 25 to 27, I learned a lot more about business by doing a structured MBA course than I would have on my own.”
Yes if you can meet the application requirements. The better MBA programmes require a minimum of two years full-time work experience, some EMBAs ask for five or more. And many schools also demand that you have a good GMAT score (see the box).
On the other hand … the GMAT is a tough test, and the better schools will quiz you in depth about what work experience you have.
How to choose your MBA school
There are around 3,500 business schools worldwide and over 100 in the UAE, so how do you judge which one will work for you?
Research
Before making your final choice, talk to students, academic staff, alumni and the admissions teams.
LinkedIn is a good starting point; there are some Facebook ‘MBA in UAE’ groups too. Many business schools also have alumni networks that will answer queries – these groups might also be useful for future networking.
Discover as much as you can about the calibre of the faculty, their expertise and background. Visiting tutors often bring in-depth international knowledge; resident tutors understand the local conditions and can get to know their students, but they may not have the same breadth and quality of experience.
Teaching methods are also important. All schools use classroom tutorials, but live case studies and real-world consultancy projects with companies can be significant. Some schools have a final dissertation, others require a worked project; some demand a lot of group work, others emphasise individual assessment.
The better EMBAs often have international partnerships and some have multi-site multi-country workshop weeks to provide a broader experience and the opportunity to interact with students from other places.
Rankings
There are a number of widely respected worldwide ranking lists for MBAs, but the most popular league table is probably the Financial Times Global MBA ranking. This focuses mainly on the financial value of the degree in terms of the salary increase that can be achieved. rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2015
Other rankings include the Economist Full time MBA ranking, which gives more emphasis to personal development and career opportunities. www.economist.com/whichmba/full-time-mba-ranking
The Forbes Best Business Schools ranking is based entirely on return of investment (ROI) within the first five years and focuses on US business schools. www.forbes.com/business-schools
MBA50.com has collated results from various lists for easy comparison and creates rankings of rankings.
Not all the schools present in the UAE appear on these lists, of course, and not all of the listed names have UAE centres. But you can use these rankings to compare your shortlisted preferences.
Accreditation
Assessment by an independent third-party is another good indicator.
There are three major international accrediting bodies for business schools: Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) a US based gold standard accreditation; the UK-based Association of MBAs (AMBA) is the only global MBA-specific accreditation organisation; the European Foundation for Management Development (EQUIS) tests a school’s level of internationalisation.
Look for at least one of these stamps of approval on any business school you’re considering – it’s tough to achieve accreditation by any one of these bodies, and it is a genuine mark of quality.
Careers
You should be able to check out the employment record for the school’s MBA graduates. You should also check out the availability of post-MBA careers support. Some schools offer one-to-one career coaching, for instance, and in some cases this will also be available to alumni in the long term.
How’s your GMAT?
The General Management Admissions Test (GMAT) is widely used by business schools, especially those with a home base in Europe or the US. It’s a standardised computer-adaptive test that measures verbal, mathematical and analytical writing skills in a set time. If you found it tricky to complete all the questions in an exam within the time constraint, you’ll find it hard to pass GMAT.
Here are two simulators we like:
Hult Business School gmat.hult.edu
London Business School gmat.london.edu/
More information about GMAT at the official website: www.mba.com/global/the-gmat-exam.aspx
The Rewards: what you get back
1. Your post-MBA salary
Although salaries differ according to the industry, location or amount of work experience, it’s almost guaranteed that your post-MBA salary will be higher.
One guide estimates that a new MBA graduate would get paid at least $10,000 per year more than someone with a bachelor’s degree in a similar role. The upper level was nearer $30,000 a year, say AED 110,193.
And according to GMAC (the Graduate Management Admission Council, a non-profit umbrella organisation for many management schools) the starting annual salary for those who graduate in 2015 from a full-time two-year MBA course will be at least $100,000.
So it’s likely that you will see a significant financial return. It should not take more than a few years to recoup the total cost – around four years is the norm.
After that, you will start to see real returns on your investment – and in every case they will be substantially higher than if you didn’t take the degree.
But if an improved salary is the main reason for doing your MBA, be warned – there are a lot of MBA graduates out there. Is the sheer number diluting the value of the degree in your particular field? Would it be worth investing in the extra cost of a top-quality course to ensure a good starting position in the post-MBA job race?
2. Career opportunities
Basically, a MBA gives you an advantage in progressing to high-level management positions. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the MBA graduates worldwide are senior managers or board directors.
Market flexibility is a major benefit. An MBA emphasises your generic management capability and reduces your reliance on experience of a particular business sector. In theory, it allows you to change industries; it certainly works for providing entrepreneurs with a kick-start.
This is how Murdoch MBA student Leanne sees it: “in such a competitive environment – my career has been predominately tourism, hospitality and aviation – an MBA gives me an advantage.”
For Maitri, the monetary value is also important but not critical: “the MBA has made me better at what I do and how I communicate with clients because I have a greater understanding of business, money and finance as subjects” – and that can translate into more business for her as a freelance video producer.
And for both Maitri and Leanne the increased earnings potential is not the principal motivation: professional development is key.
“I feel undertaking a MBA at this stage of my career allowed me to apply actual work experience with more formal training and a canvas to learn off other professionals and industries,” says Leanne.
3. A business network
Studying for a MBA almost inevitably creates a network of personal and professional contacts that will stand you in good stead.
Your fellow students will be future high level managers, your tutors will be experienced and already well-connected, the real-world projects that are part of most top MBA programmes will introduce you to potential employers, and the alumni provide an instant network of like-minded people who understand your motivations and have shared the pain and the gain of the MBA course.
4. Career development
The MBA gives you top-quality academic knowledge in both theory and practical applications. The latter is crucial: you’ll acquire skills through projects and collaboration with fellow students.
“An unexpected benefit of the course was that I learned a lot from my classmates,” says Maitri. “They came from a range of industries and brought some unique perspectives about the concepts we were learning.
Studying for an MBA inevitably takes you out of your comfort zone, forcing you to confront new problems, adapt your thinking, and apply management techniques that will be new to you. Ideally the MBA course will be an opportunity to constantly challenge yourself.
Importantly, the MBA experience will give you a deep understanding of business.
MBA Fairs
If you want to check out what’s on offer, and especially if you have questions about doing a MBA, fairs can be useful. They are mini-exhibitions involving a few business schools where you can get one-on-one answers to your questions plus workshops on topics like admission strategies and the GMAT.
There are often MBA Fairs in Dubai in the Spring and towards the end of the year; Abu Dhabi has fewer. The biggest and best is the QS World MBA Tour, due in Dubai on 21st November. For more details visit: www.topmba.com/events
Another option is the Access MBA Tour, which guarantees one-to-one meetings with admissions directors of the participating business schools. It comes to Dubai on 27th November. Details: www.accessmba.com/tour
Your Abu Dhabi MBA
Most of the MBA schools are in Dubai, but you don’t have to leave Abu Dhabi to take the degree
Abu Dhabi School of Management
ADSM is a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Chamber that aims “to develop entrepreneurial managers with the knowledge and skills to contribute to sustainable socio-economic development in the knowledge economy”.
It has a Partnership Agreement with the UK’s Imperial College Business School and delivers Imperial’s part-time MBA programme. ADSM says the MBA can be completed in 14-15 months. www.adsm.ac.ae
Abu Dhabi University
ADU is one of the growing ranks of AACSB-accredited business schools in the UAE. It offers a flexible full- or part-time MBA programme that can be completed in as few as 12 months and as many as 36. The total programme load consists of eight core courses and two electives.
ADU also has MBA specialisations in Finance and Human Resource Management. www.adu.ac.ae/programs.html
AlHosn University
AlHosn offers a part-time MBA (evening courses, with classes on Thursdays) that is intensive, modular and highly integrated. Students who are employed full-time are advised to take nine semester hours or fewer during any four-month period.
The minimum entry requirement is a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, or the school’s MBA Foundation course; the university recommends that applicants have at least two years of work experience. www.alhosnu.ae/mba
Higher Colleges of Technology
The HCT Professional MBA is an EMBA programme that requires a minimum of three years’ relevant experience for admission. Courses are taught in weeknight evenings and/or weekends; the programme is modular, and students typically take two courses per module with a final capstone course that integrates and applies a student’s learning experience to an interactive project. www.hct.ac.ae/graduate-studies/pmba/
INSEAD
Founded in France in 1957, INSEAD today is a genuinely international operation. In Abu Dhabi INSEAD offers its highly rated Global Executive MBA, an intensive course completed in 15 months that requires only 63 days out of the office in that time (plus 10-12 hours per week of independent study).
A notable feature of the GEMBA is a Leadership Development Programme that combines 360-degree assessment, group coaching, team activities and peer work shadowing; as INSEAD puts it, “it runs throughout the programme, evolving along with your own leadership skills”. global.emba.insead.edu
New York Institute of Technology
NYIT’s School of Management in the UAE is the only American university here that has the prestigious AACSB accreditation. The key features of the NYIT MBA are the integration of technology throughout the academic curriculum in order to “enhance the decision-making abilities of our students in ways that are competitive and contemporary’; and unique ‘experiential education’ programmes that include multiple platforms “that ensure the workforce readiness of our students”.
The course is highly modular. Students can take a general MBA or may elect to specialise in one of three ‘concentrations’ – Decision Science, Finance or Marketing. MBA students also have a unique opportunity to take one or more semesters in any of NYIT’s global campuses, including New York and Vancouver. catalog.nyit.edu/management/mba/
Strathclyde Business School
Strathclyde is one of very few business schools that have accreditation from all three major international standards bodies – AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA.
Its MBA programme features an impressive choice of electives for specialist study. The bulk of the programme’s credits however are contained in three core modules – The Reflective Practitioner (designed to reflect the increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, stakeholder expectations and the professional practice of management); Making the Business Work (management fundamentals and specialist functions in an organisation); and Strategic Management for Sustainable Success (designed to integrate the other classes and to help students confidently manage internal and external complexity and uncertainty).
The balance of the course is ‘Personal Development’, including two electives from a menu of 25 options and the final MBA project – the capstone element of the programme, enabling the student to put into practice the knowledge and skills developed throughout the Strathclyde MBA.
This is a full-time one-year course in the UK but it can be taken part-time in Abu Dhabi with evening classes over three years. strathclydeuae.com/programs/post-graduate/
UAE University
UAEU’s College of Business and Economics is another of the handful of AACSB MBA courses in the country. Currently offered in three locations – Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai – the two-year MBA programme is open to students with a Bachelor’s degree and at least one year of work experience (three are recommended).
The programme runs over four semesters. It allows students to select content ‘tracks’ as electives, with tracks now for Human Resource Management and Development, E-Business, Organization Excellence and Finance. UAEU says it plans to test more specialisations in the future. www.cbe.uaeu.ac.ae/en/graduate_programs/mba/
Zayed University
Zayed University’s College of Business is one of only five schools in the UAE that are accredited by the AACSB.
ZU offers an Executive MBA at its Abu Dhabi campus that features in-classroom instruction every six and one-half weeks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in full day sessions. That is complemented by CD-based lectures and customised courseware, some of which involves videoconferencing. Students and faculty interact frequently to exchange email, transfer files, submit papers and access course materials in the form of PowerPoint slides.
http://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/graduate_programs/Graduate_programs_Folder/Masters_Degree_Prog/Business_Masters/intro_EMBA.aspx
MBA schools in the UAE
We’ve compiled a listof all the MBA schools in the Emirates, INCLUDING CLICKABLE LINKS TO THE WEB INFO Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ug8vbh3f3eaoten/mba%20courses.xlsx?dl=0