Investing in Business Education

Friday, 04 December 2009

MBA program for a successful career start

Full-time or part-time? One or two years? On-line or not? Or maybe an executive MBA?

These are the questions that many young applicants ask themselves before taking the final decision about their graduate degree.

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is an executive educational program created to help students launch start-ups or take a successful career in prestigious companies. As an instruction awarded to future business leaders, an MBA requires major investments. For example, in some business schools the cost of a degree is several times higher that the average annual salary in the respective country. Furthermore, a significant time investment is required to meet the top MBA eligibility criteria such as an outstanding GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) score, an excellent command of English language and a significant working experience.

More expensive = better quality?

People often think that the more they invest in education, the better the quality they receive. In the case of business education, however, the tuition costs are not always the most accurate indicator of instruction excellence. In some cases, such as IMD (a world leader in business education), the tuition fees are about 85,000 CHF per year. Given the present economic situation, it is difficult to imagine that the means match the goal of professional accomplishment.

Is it justified to invest in education today?

In recent years fees for business school have steadily increased. This trend continues in 2009, despite the economic downturn and the global financial crisis. It is therefore justified to determine whether an MBA graduate may get an adequate return on investment. Statistics show that almost always graduates from the top ten or twenty MBA programs recover their investment within a relatively short period of time. Things look much less certain for this and next year’s graduates due to the collapse of the financial markets and its impact on MBAs’ most likely employers- investment banking and consulting practices.

To have better and faster return on investment, do your own research and monitor the changes in the most prestigious and impartial ratings.