Opinions on EBS & Henley MBA programs

Hi All,

I'm looking for opinions on the school and the MBA program at HW/Edinburgh Business School. It seems like a decent program but I don't see any accreditations listed such as you see at Henley. It seems to be residency free unlike Henley which has the one week per year requirement.

It does look as though you can finish the entire course faster at EBS as well.

At present I'm picking between Imperial DLMBA, Henley and EBS.

Key points I'm interested in are reputation, workload, exam difficulty, time to complete (minimum and max).

Anyway, if you attend or know anything about it post your thoughts for me and others.

Thanks!

 

Reputation: this one you can ask people around. I want to avoid too many subjective opinions on this.

Work load and exam difficulty is tough issue with Imperial. Each module consists of a lot to study. The examination can be difficult enough that half of the class failed. Also, all exam happened in around a week, so taking 3 modules a year would be taking 3 exams in a week. If you are unlucky enough, it could be having 2 exams in one day! (and even one more in the next morning) Each exam takes 3 hours to complete.

Nonetheless, if the study is too easy, nothing much can be learnt.

Time to complete: it said 2 to 5 years. 5 years is the hard upper limit. But 2-year is almost impossible unless you are studying "full time" or you are a genius. Although I do not have any concrete statistics, most of our classmates finish the programme in around 3 to 4 years. I haven't heard of anyone finishing in 2 years but I believe there may be people who can do so soon.

(I am going to finish it this year, and this is the third year of my study)

 

Tcmak,

Thanks for your response. Could you tell me a little about your experience at Imperial? What is your opinion of the course material, school support, exams, interaction with professors and other students (online I assume) and the overall tone of the program? I've read in other posts that the exam failure rate can be as high as 50% which is a bit discouraging. If this is true, is it because the exams are so difficult or because there are so many people in the program that aren't up to the task or both.

I'm so close to applying to this program that I have my application done and most of the supporting docs ready. I just don't want to get into something that is going to be a constant uphill battle because they are hell-bent on failing people. I don't mind working but I want an institution that is interested in people succeeding, not failing.

Anything you can offer is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I am happy with the course material and interaction with professors. Many of them reply to questions are done in a timely manner. Course materials are easy to read. Virtual tutorials are also providing supportive interactions real time.

In terms of school support, it is also fast too, although change of staff arrangement did cause some confusion this year. I believe this is only a transition period.

Students, although this is a DL programme, most of the students are from UK. I am aware that some locations have some active student groups, like Hong Kong, Japan, Grecce, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada...where are you based?

Although there are some exam having such high failure rate, there are yet exams with 100% passing. So don't worry. Also, the rule for passing exam in the core modules is like this....

for the 7 core modules, you have to achieve 50 marks in average . However, for each module, a mark lower than 40 would require re-take.

With geniue hard work, most can get more than 40 or above. But the only problem is to have some modules with higher marks to maintain the average. Although I can't get all modules with marks higher than 40, I am lucky enough that some other modules are good enough to keep up the average. But I think I could do better in the exam preparation. Having work, study, and some other commitments is one difficulty with DL.

I believe some modules are harder than the other. I am not very sure if this is specific to the professor's marking standard, or the students are not doing well in that specifc area.

Afterall, it's an exciting and eye-openning experience with the study.

 

Thanks tcmak. I appreciate your answers and candor.

I am based in the U.S. so the British grading system is unknown to me but I have to assume that if you know the material it doesn't really matter how it's graded. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't a deliberate effort to fail a certain percentage of students to make the course appear to be more competitive.

How many of the courses have you completed and which would you consider easier, and those you would find more difficult?

Where are you based? Did you have a background that was conducive to this type of coursework? I see you are a comp sci guy.

Thanks again.

 

You can read about my experience at EBS at http://www.drannbauer.com/smoothflash/contents.php?pid=6.

 

Thanks...I'll check it out.

 

Hi,

US.. (as far as I can remember) it should be the third country with the most students in this programme....

It is academically challenging but I can assure you that there won't be any deliberate effort to fail students. They don't appear to have any "fixed" percentage for failing students... or giving out high marks... there are modules with no one getting 70 marks or above while there are modules with no one getting lower than 40!... and they release these statistics when exam finished, and limited to students in the programme. So I only know of these figures for two academic years so far. But given the variation, I believe the distribution of marks reflect well on student performance without deliberate effort to make the distribution "looking better".

I have no experience with US grading system. But I have read on this forum that there are differences with British and US grading. My impression is that getting an "A" in US is easier than that in British. On this I would encourage you to ask about this with the programme director.

This is my final year. I have completed all the compulsory modules. Of these, the process and product module is the most difficult (to me)... but quite a number of students said this is the subject they didn't do very well. This is probably the one I heard about the difficulty most. And indeed this is also the module I did the worst. I don't have any concrete figure on this but based on my experience and what I've heard.

On the contrary, I find Economics being the easiest module. The material is well written, and the professor is good at explaining complicated and abstract concepts in simple terms, and yet making economics an interesting topic.

I am based in Hong Kong. You are right, I am a computer science graduate and I am working in the IT industry. As you can imagine, the information system management module took me the least effort to understand.

This also brings a point that whether one module is difficult than other is pretty personal. My classmates working as accoutants find the accounting simple, but this is certainly not my case. On the contrary, I don't find the maths in the programme difficult while I realised that some classmates had difficulties in balancing an equation. So if you have chances to discuss with other students in the programme, you may hear about difficulty with the finance and quantitative method modules.

Earlier before, I have received an referral from the school that a potential applicant would like to hear about comments from a current student. It happened that the potential applicant is in Hong Kong and thus referred him to me. So I believe you can ask the school for this and take the chance of listening to other comments too.

 

Henley MC

Roamer,

I am currently studying a Henley DL MBA.

I am thoroughly enjoying the experience. I am UK based so attend residentials approx 3 times a year. I guess as a US based student you would take the international stream which only requires one visit a year.

The course is 75% assignment and 25% exam. The UK marking system is tougher than the US. The average grade at Henley is 53%, which is a C grade.

I have a fantastic cohort which helps. We chat almost daily on msn messenger and Skype and there is a reasonably good intranet.

Henley is triple accredited if that appeals.

You are expected to complete the course in 3 years, it is a fairly prescribed program, but they are flexible to the individuals needs.

Search this forum under my name for more threads with good info on Henley and also on EBS and Warwick who I also considered.

Fire away with any questions.

All the best,

Dave C.

 

Thanks Dave,

I've been looking at those programs as well. The only thing turning me off to them is the limited residency requirements. Although it's not an issue this year it may be one down the road and I don't want to short-circuit myself if my ability to travel changes in future years.

Other than that they seem like excellent programs.

Thanks again!

 

tcmak,

Did you look at the International Mgmt MBA program at Royal Halloway? If so, what was your opinion of it?

Thanks

 

I did the EBS MBA in 1998, and then enrolled in the DBA program.

I finished 6 exams last year--and ended up being awarded a "Strategic Planning Specialization" in the process.

I can safely say, of all of the courses I have ever taken in management--I find the HW curriculum to be most useful and practical. It is all focused around helping leaders and managers get results.

That being said, it is a very tough program, and sometimes very lonely. However, when you actually complete it--and go to Edinburgh to graduate--they really make you feel like a king!

Jim

 

The Int. Mgmt. MBA with Royal Halloway has similar structure with that Imperial. I didn't take part in the programme.

However, the major difference among the two would be name recognition.

 

tcmak - (and anyone else)

I've decided to take the plunge at Imperial. There are so many good programs around but this one is the best fit for me.

I'm now looking at courses for the first year and tentatively plan to take three. I'm looking at Economics, Information Systems, and ? Do you have any suggestions for a third? I would prefer to stay away from anything at the extreme end of difficulty in the first year. Process & Products and Finance & Accounts look like something to avoid for this year. Any thoughts are appreciated. Here's the list to look at:


Managing people and organisations
Managing processes and products
Information systems management
Economics for business
Managing finance and accounts
Managing markets and competition
Decision making

 

So, you're looking for a good blow-off class for your first year, eh?

 

Being that I enjoy a quick wit, your comment is well received. If you care to classify something not "at the extreme end of difficulty" as a blow-off course then I guess it would qualify.

The true intent is to avoid unintentionally picking what would be categorized by current students in the know, as the most difficult course they have ever taken. As a first year student, at a new school, in a new program, I would see it as prudent move. After all, you want me to have an intellectually stimulating and successful first year experience don't you?

Thanks for bumping the topic Ted.

p.s. How did you like City University? Was the MBA program a DL ?

 

Usually, the human resources class (which your school styles "managing people and organizations") is considered one of the easier ("blow-off"?) classes in an MBA program. As for the most difficult class which one would want to avoid first semester (sometimes called the "flunk-out" class), that'd be stats.

 

The MBA was actually offered by DL by City University back in the day (albeit by paper); however, I did my MBA degrees by two and a half years of night school. I enjoyed it. I found the work demanding but still do-able.

 

Are you there, Roamer?

 

Yes I am. I was off for a while tending to some non-educational matters. Imagine that!

Thanks for the thoughts on the courses. I'll take it under consideration as I delve into the course descriptions a little more and wait for more opinions should they come my way. Stats has never been one of my favorites as I find it boring after a week or so. Not too fond of the exams either.

Sounds like you put in some long hours during 2.5 years of night school. As long as you enjoyed it and got what you wanted, it's all worth it in the end.

Why the two MBAs? Was the second an additional specialization? I see that they are listed with separate locations. How much cross-over in course work was there? I assume you didn't have to do it all twice.