Edinburgh MBA Program - Bachelor's Degree NOT Required!

Edinburgh Business School

I thought I would post this message as a new topic. It's also under a recent Kaplan post.


You may want to consider the Edinburgh Business School (offered through Heriot-Watt University). This is an internationally known business school. You can complete the 100% DL, 9 course (7 core courses, 2 electives) MBA program at your own place (i.e. as fast or as slow as you like, up to 7 years).

The courses are $1400/piece + $100/exam. So, at $1500/course and exam = $13,500 total. BUT, you can pay by the course if you like.

http://www.ebsmba.com/



Here is the best part about this program (IMHO). This has been announced here previously by Lawrie Miller and others, but it deserves repeating: you do not, repeat do not need a Bachelor's degree to enter the Edinburgh MBA program. In fact, you don't even need a High School diploma! You simply take (and pass with a "B") three courses (1 core and 2 electives) and your then officially admitted into the program. Note that a "B" is actually a 50% pass! Here is the blurb:


"Pass or fail
You must attain 50% to pass an examination. In common with American graduate programmes, only students receiving the equivalent of grade B are considered to have passed. Here are the letter grades and the percentage bands they represent:


X = > 80%
A = 65–80%
B = 50–64%
C = 45–49%
F = < 45%
If you achieve 70% or above in all nine examinations, you will be awarded an MBA with distinction. If you fail an examination, you will be permitted one resit in that course. You will be awarded a certificate of achievement for each course passed. "



The link to the Admissions page may be found here: http://www.ebsmba.com/howToStart_admission.asp

The section under "Self Study" states:

"Self-study
Edinburgh Business School believes that any individual who has the potential to undertake MBA study should have the opportunity to do so. A first- or second-class honours degree from a recognised university is the standard entry requirement. If you do not have a first degree, you may become a matriculated (i.e. enrolled) MBA student by meeting the requirements for the award of a postgraduate certificate. This requires you to pass examinations in three MBA courses, one of which must be a core course. You can commence your study at any time by purchasing one or more courses. "

How is this possible you ask? Well, apparently it seems that the British education system works a bit differently. In the U.K., people are often accepted into a Master's program without a proper undergraduate degree. The key is that the University will require that you take a couple of courses first to ensure that your ready for the rigours of higher education. Assuming that you pass the course(s) with an acceptable grade, your in.

The University of London External Programme offers a similiar "alternative way in" to their master's programs. However, this is done on a case-by-case basis, unlike Edinburgh who will let anyone in who passes the three courses.


- Tom

 

Interesting. I knew about this program, but for some reason I never looked it up on the DFES web site before today.

And it's not there.

I mean, Heriot-Watt is obviously there; and if Heriot-Watt says it will grant the degree based on Edinburgh Business School coursework, then fine... that settles all bets. But, technically, shouldn't Edinburgh Business School be listed on this page? Just askin'.

 

I'm not sure why Edinburgh is not on the list of "Recognised Degrees". It would appear from the Edinburgh Business School website (http://www.ebsmba.com/usp_established.asp), that they fall under the Heriot-Watt Univ Royal Charter.

- Tom



- Tom

 

The fact that EBS will admit students without bachelor's degrees has been known for nearly two decades.

 

Trust me, as a DL and on-campus student at EBS (the name of Heriot-Watt's business school, they are not seperate universities as some people tend to think) there is nothing "simple" about it. A 50% there is not like a 50% you get at a US school.

I'm a year and a half into my PhD program at University of Florida, and I have never had any exam here that was as difficult as an EBS exam. A few have come close, but you can make up the points with other exams or assignments. With EBS you get one long 3 hour exam, that's it.

If you are interested in reading about my EBS experience, you can check my webpage at www.drannbauer.com.

 

Tom,

I did consider the H-W MBA as a result of information received through this forum. At present they are not my first choice, but may become so if my company do not agree to funding my studies.

The main downside I saw/see is the lack of accreditation, however the reasons for this were explained to me by the recently retired H-W faculty member Professor Gavin Kennedy, who was a regular poster on this forum.
His comments can be found on this thread:
Gavin's comments

Peace,

Dave C.

 

Yes, but probably not by every member of this forum.

This was a recent revelation for me (last week, actually), and I thought I would share it with the forum. As I mentioned in the first post:

"This has been announced here previously by Lawrie Miller and others, but it deserves repeating..."


Anyway, I figured it was worth mentioning again for those unaware of this aspect of the EBS MBA program.

- Tom

 

Thanks for the link to the post regarding EBS accreditation (or lack thereof). I know DesElms inquired about this earlier.

Thanks,
Tom

 

Re: Re: Edinburgh MBA Program - Bachelor's Degree NOT Required!

I just want to echo this. We in the U.S. get so caught up the the paradigm where 70% is passing, 80% is good, etc. That assumes, of course, that the difficulty of each and every exam is normed around those numbers. But this isn't the case at all. There is no way to take a raw score like that and determine how difficult the the test is.

EBS exams are notoriously difficult.

 

Hi Tom

As previously pointed out EBS Professor Dr. Kennedy is a regular poster here as well as Dr. Bear who was their U.S. marketing agent for some time. Definately a great choice and suggestion!

 

Two points.

1. EBS is the graduate business school of Heriot Watt University. The degrees are granted by Heriot Watt.

2. EBS is not unique in allowing people without a degree to enter the MBA programme. The Said's MBA is pretty much unique in requiring an undergraduate degree. Pretty much every MBA in the UK from the LBS down will accept equivalent qualifications to a degree. For a (long) list of the equivalent qualifications, try the Open University's MBA website http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?Q01F02_4_0

Angela

 

As a graduate of the Edinburgh Business School of Heriot-Watt University (MBA 2000), let me also chip in on the difficulty of the exams.

I was a National Merit scholar in high school, earned my BSc/MSc with honors and was pretty much accustomed to being a very good student in any academic endeavor. Rarely had I encountered exams to the degree of difficulty as I did in my MBA program. In fact, I liked the exams so much, I took some of them twice! The cynics may suggest this is because I failed them the first time out.....

The UK grading scale does not correlate to the USA grading scale in my experience. When I first saw that only 50% was necessary to pass, I thought 'Pish-tosh, how hard can this be?'. Well, I soon found out.

Also of interest, when I first started exploring a MBA back in the early 90's, my alma mater would not accept me into their evening MBA program because my undergrad/grad degrees were in a physical science, not business administration. So other than as a screening tool to ration limited seats in a program, I am dubious as to the utility of requiring an undergrad prerequisite for a MBA. I cannot really say that my science degrees were particularly on point as preparation for a MBA.

 

Will FAFSA pay for it?

 

The USDOE-sponsored student loan programs pay for many foreign educational programs. Check it out at www.fafsa.ed.gov .