Queen Margaret University College ?

Jonathan, as in the is link.

http://www.qmuc.ac.uk/marketing/university/history.htm

J.R(ic)

 

To Professor Kennedy,

Apart from Queen Margaret University College, which other higher education institues in UK will be upgraded to University College similar to Queen Margaret University College. The school fee suits my budget but the disciplines are not.

Thanks !
Monkey

 

John,

I found that there were several Queen Margaret in UK history.
In QMUC's history introduction (as your link above), it doesn't mention which Queen Margaret is QMUC's.

 

In reply to recent correspondence from a person in, I think, the US, I sent the following comments on the enquiry after searching both names on the 'Ask Jeeves' web site (www.askjeeves.com>) and the same can be found for the others:

"Edge Hill is a College of Higher education near Liverpool, state funded and its degrees and diplomas are validated by Lancaster University (a university by Royal Charter).

Liverpool Hope University College is a sligthly 'higher' College of
Education than EdgeHill,also in Liverpool, also state funded and recognised by the UK government. It is not yet fully accredited by the full Royal Charter, but it is en route to it and wil gain the right to award degree inits name.

Neither are degree mills. Their awards are recognised in the UK."

From limited experience of them, the 'University College' model is spreading in the UK as the government aims to raise the proportion attending degree programmes to 50 per cent of the educable population (unfortunately - or typically - without an increase in funding).

However, given the enormous slack in the system (of which I have spoken bluntly at many a fora in the UK, often to derision by colleagues - though we have managed in an institution that shall remain nameless), for example, three terms when four is possible; when class sizes are kept small when they can be increased four of five fold even for on campus programmes, when universities are closed over the week-ends, yet thousands of students are willing to attend weekend classes, that resources are under utilised and staff are worked well below a sustainable norm (poor dears), much less funding is needed than is imagined by the faculty who think the world owes them a living.

I cannot judge the quality of their programmes at my distance from them but they are worth a look.

 

Do I understand correctly that this school (QMUC) doesn't have a Royal Charter? I've seen people advised not to consider a UK school as being legitimate unless it has a Royal Charter, so I guess that I'm a bit confused about how all this works in the UK. Is there a public resource on the web that lists all valid degree-granting institutions in the UK?

 

Yes Imperialism from a British standpoint did raise my eyebrow! However, the British Empire was of substantial size and one can read and use arguments written by the victims of British imperialism. Furthermore, the course has such worthies as Schumpeter, Lenin and Hilferding on the reading list. Imperialism is in my veiw an authentic area of study, especially since there are new imperialist kids on the international block.

True an MA in this discipline will not have the marketable qualities of an MBA but it is possible to undertake higher education merely to water the gardens of the mind. Sadly not so in my case, I get an extra $1,000 a year for having an MA. I might do a D.Ed afterwards (the reason I did not do a M.Ed was that I could not bring myself to do curriculum studies on my summer off.) Anyone got any suggestions for a distance ed D.Ed?

 

Jonathan, your question 4 posts earlier on this subject about the origin of the name and which Queen was it, well a reply from QMUC marketing & communications people came in overnight as follows:

QUOTE: Dear John

QMUC is named in honour of one of Scotland's most famous queens, Queen Margaret (c1047-1093), wife of Malcolm Canmore. She is an appropriate figure for the University College, for her influence had a significant impact on the daily life of Scottish people. She combined a lively interest in religious matters with a direct involvement in charity, seeking always to improve the quality of life. QMUC similarly seeks to fulfil the needs of the
industries which serve society through the provision of relevant education, research and consultancy.
Hope this helps
Thanks

Joanna Thomson
Marketing Assistant

 

Hello again. Re: the fees; I have received an email confirming the fees as stated. The higher fees are for students attending the university. The others are strictly dl fees.
Of course I am very excited as this program meets all of my search criteria!
I will have to start in the hospitality program as the golf program is not available via dl yet. They share some modules so I will start with those and then hopefully move over when the golf becomes available. If not, I will graduate with the Hospitality MBA-not a big loss for me and if I decide I really need it, I can get another MBA!!

They are sending the materials incl. the application. It may be too late but I am going to give it a try. Re: the exemptions; once again, it may be too late, so I will just take the courses. I may learn something considering the coursework will be delivered from another prospective than what I have learned in the US. Who knows?

Thanks everyone, I will keep you updated.
John

 

John S, congrats, and we assume this means that your -IN- and the fees, well at less than $5k confirmed how can you go wrong.

Keep us all informed, and you know what, go for the double MBA, and maybe the 3rd one with the Middlesex program. Simply choose like-type subjects that will count for all degrees.

J.R(i.c)

 

Congrats John; hope all goes well.

 

I have done some research on the program on their website, and the following questions come to mind:

1 If they are not do not have a royal charter, who will award the degrees specifically?

2 When I called for information on the program I got an answer that they did not have all the courses for the MBA ready. Should this be a factor to take into consideration when applying for the program?

3 This program looks very well suited for distance learning, because there are no exams to take, but does this also make it an " easy" program? And thus not taken seriously?

4 Although no charter is given they seem to be able to award degrees, I went to the official clearing agency website for UK
students and found this information on them.

http://www.ucas.com/instit/i/q25.html

One last question, can somebody post a link to the website of the MBA of Middlesex? I found only some programs called Professional development? Any comments about those?

 

I posted this on another thread a few days ago:

>>>
Anyone considering doing a UK MBA should ensure it is accredited by "AMBA" (the Association of MBAs). It ensures certain standards which can be viewed on the AMBA website. I suppose it is the UK equivalent of AACSB but AMBA exclusively accredits MBA programmes. The listed accredited business schools are mostly UK institutions, but there are several European schools and the odd American and overseas school too. Several of the listed institutions offer distance learning mode MBAs.

http://www.mba.org.uk/

<<<

Now, I am not saying the institution in question is suspect, I know nothing about it. However, I would find out whether they are going for AMBA accreditation or not, and if not, why not. AMBA also accredits DL programmes, so that would not be an excuse.

See "accreditation" > "acceditation standards" for the criteria applied to brick and mortar institutions and the additional criteria applied to DL programmes.


All the best.

 

QMUC does require a thesis, which is usually not required
by American universities. So I think it is not an "easy" one.

 

John,

Can you show me the web site of Middlesex's DL MBA? Thanks.

 

FYI: Queen Margaret

some background information

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/margaret.html

 

Jonathan, John Spies was into a program at Middlesex called MA/MSc in work based learning and not an MBA.

J.R(ic)

 

If you look at the section explaining the modules you will see how they conduct assessment. It seems that it is mainly through written reports which seems somewhat standard in a lot of dl programs that I have considered. I, in no way, consider this easy.
The dissertation (not required in many other programs I have considered) is actually attractive to me because my association requires a 'monograph' to become a Master Club Manager and this might serve in that endeavor.

Re: the MBA/AMBA angle. Let's get real on this. This MBA is in no way similar to your 'typical' MBA such as Heriot-Watt's. This is geared towards the hospitality industry and I am not going to take a course where I will gain knowledge that is not applicable to my industry. I am not trying to become a banker or financier for example. Also, if the school is accredited and financed by the Scottish Government; why should I argue with that?

I am already in the top position in my industry; I can only move up in the size and type of club in which I am employed. For what it is worth, I can get a Masters ( or MBA ) in hospitality at any school as long as it is not a mill and be OK. The reason I am doing this in the first place is not so much for personal enrichment, but for professional gain as I will be in the very small minority of club managers with an advanced degree.
Fire the arrows when ready!

 

Several items to add:
Cathy Robb, at Queen Margaret has been very helpful. She recommended that I apply directly into the Golf & Country Club Management program although it is not entirely complete. It shares several modules with the hospitality MBA, already approved, so I will start with those. She indicated that it is expected to be fully operational very soon.
If you have not read this on their site, this program will be the first of it's kind. I have looked around quite a bit and have never seen an MBA like this, so of course, I am very excited about it.

 

Well done John, its good to know your one of the first in. Now it would be really exciting when you graduate from QMUC in the Golf MBA, if you could be running St Andrews in Scotland, that would really P...Off some of those Brits & Scots.

J.R(ic)

 

I don't think that you need to worry about any arrows, John. QMUC seems to be a perfectly legitimate school, and this program sounds as though it was tailor-made for your needs (and inexpensive, at that!). Congratulations!

If I understand correctly, since QMUC doesn't get its degree-granting authority from a Royal Charter, it must be authorized by an Act of Parliament, which is just as valid. Someone please correct me if that's wrong.