http://www.bsl-lausanne.ch/index.htm I am seeking some guidance from the group. This appears to be a ACBSP accredited school (at least for the bba and mba stream) which suggests it merits consideration. My interest is in the DBA program. I am not particularly concerned with using this degree for teaching but would probably want to include it as a credential to support a consulting capacity in leadership and organiational change.
Re: Re: Business School Lausanne The information I received indicates 26,000 (CHF) which equates to $23,500 Canadian Dollars. This is a research driven DBA so most of the work can be done from your home country. I am being told some visits to Switzerland are required but I do not know how many. They respond very quickly to e-mail queries.
You might want to consider a school that is AACSB accredited. ACBSP is not very recognised in mainstream academia and is considered a second-rate accreditation. The accreditations you should be looking for in a European business school are: AACSB EQUIS AMBA A triple-accredited school is top rate. A doctorate is a HUGE investment in time and money. Don't sell yourself short by obtaining a qualification that is substandard.
Re: Re: Business School Lausanne Thank you for the response. Can you comment on the acceptance of the ACBSP accreditation outside of academia. I am far to close to retirment from academia to really care about this as a consideration. My purpose for this request of assistance from the board is really very straightforward. Once I leave the academic world and only have to work if I choose to do so will a DBA from this ACBSP accredited insitution be a help or will the credential be deemed of little value.
Re: Re: Re: Business School Lausanne I cannot really comment for outside of academia. The main purpose of a PhD or DBA is for academia. ACBSP is not the gold standard for business accreditation. This distinction belongs to AACSB. If you're just looking to get the "Dr." title, then any doctoral degree will give you that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Business School Lausanne Thanks for the input. I am not sure I agree that any doctoral degree will do the trick but I appreciate the response and will continue to look into options. I find it interesting that so few of the regulars have waded in with some type of feedback.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Business School Lausanne This is a very touchy subject. There are those (like myself) that maintain that AACSB is the only legitimate accreditor of business school education. Other think that ACBSP "will do". Yet others think that the school only need to be RA. I guess it depends what you want. If you just want the "Dr." title, any program will do. If you want to teach at a B&M school, research, publish... then AACSB is the route. I noticed that you have an BGS from Athabasca University and an MA from the University of Guelph. Why did you choose to go for an unaccredited institution for your MBA? Guelph consistently ranks an 1 or 2 in Canada under the Comprehensive University category. Good luck!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Business School Lausanne I chose not to attend a RA school but did choose an accredited school. The RA/NA thing is an academic fight and seems to have little impact on the world outside the US. My employer quite happily pays for 50% of the tuition at CSU and accepts it as an appropriate credential. I find the work to be of reasonable rigor and the program structure suits my schedule and needs. Will I be able to use the degree to move into a top tier RA university? The answer is no but at the age of 60 and getting ready to enjoy retirement working towards a doctorate for employement reasons is of no interest to me. I do not want to pursue a non accredited degree however I am always interested in looking at every alternative. I have checked out most of the RA (or equivalent) schools and many of the universities in both Australia, SA and England. Now it is time to look at the other alternatives including such institutions as BSL, the subject of this post. You seem to acknowledge that there is an academic group who accept the ACBSP accreditation although they do not consider it the best. I am going to assume that suggests the world outside of academia will accept this accreditation as well which puts BLS on the list of acceptable alternatives. Once again thank you for your comments. They did help me answer some of my concerns. I will continue to explore other options before making a decision.
Hi Turtle! I understand your situation as I too have a similar background to yours as I'm going to be teaching and doing consulting work for the balance of my career. I have an Engineering degree (Mech), a U of Guelph undergraduate degree in Economics, an MBA and some other stuff. I too wish to obtain a respectable doctoral degree from a B&M institution that offers external learning. I have recently been in negotiations with Rhodes University in SA to enter their PhD in Economics program thru their DComm department, completely via external research with no visits. They are warming up to it and this is despite the "official" requirement that you visit your supervisor a couple of times per year. Doesn't hurt to ask does it! My Criteria: I always want to graduate from a B&M school, no online only schools for me, I don't care about AMBA as it isn't as respected as those will have you think (my UK MBA is doing wonders for me in teaching and business alike, no one seems to care as long as the school it came from is respected), and so UK degrees/European degrees without "formal" credentials will in many cases, give you the utility you need to gain recognition at least at the consulting level and even at the academic level as I have found to be the case. The most respected schools, Oxford and the like seem to agree with my interpretation of the utility of some accrediting bodies, so I will continue to place less emphasis on this benchmark. In short, your choice will probably serve you well. If the program you are considering is a respected one amongst the peer groups of the location it is found in, I would think that will be enough "approval" based upon my experience. Would you look down on a consultant who possesses a "top five degree" from a non-AMBA UK school? I would think not. I do laugh at the top 1000 world rankings, as has been mentioned, U of Guelph is #1 for the fourth year and constantly in the top two in Canada, yet it fails to make the top 250 list! Laurier isn't even on the list and it is a great business school in Waterloo, Western is at 300. My UK MBA school is in the top 140 of the world, so which is better? I would focus on course content and the applicability of the program and not worry so much about the accreditation aspect of it as long as the school is respected, in my case a B&M, that offers something you can utilize in your consulting business. Best of luck!
Googling, "top 1000 universities world" will produce tons of references, I have an .xls file of the top 1000 so I can reference each school quickly. Here are a few references including the top 3,000: http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/eng-rankings.htm http://ri.epfl.ch/webdav/site/ri/shared/Rankings.pdf http://www.webometrics.info/top3000.asp It always makes since to view these reports in the context of how they were derived. Fun reading!
