Queen Margaret University College ?

HA! Working at St. Andrews would be the pinnacle of achivement! (The achivement being that I could get my wife to move there! I don't believe she would like Haggis!) Seriously though, I believe that I have finally found the perfect program for me. The key being 'for me'. As stated, I am merely looking to better myself within my industry.
I found this school via Jonathan's dl list. I utilized the UK rankings from the Guardian and found a hospitality school section. Queen Margaret has a website link and the rest is history. Since I work in the US, the ranking has no meaning to me, but the degree and it's accreditation does. I tried some of the other 'better' schools, but they seem to lack the ability to answer questions via email or they have just chosen to ignore me - don't know, but as stated, Cathy at QMUC has been most helpful and the program almost seems designed for me; especially concerning my cost needs!
Thanks to those who have offered continued guidance and support, I will keep you updated on my progress!
Now, back to the Algebra! Last test before getting my BS!!

 

After I read my post, I realize that I may have been callous re: communication with some schools. Two that have been most helpful are George Brown at UniSA and Professor Kennedy at HW. They have answered all of my questions quickly and effectively. It's just that UniSA, while an outstanding program, was a little out of my price range, and HW has a program that doesn't quite meet my needs. Honestly, when this is done at QMUC, I may still enroll at HW to get a 'real' MBA. Also, because it was the first program to which I was exposed that offered an
MBA via DL, and it became a goal. I might still go after it!

 

When you get that MBA from QMUC, dont you ever go and get an MBA from HW..are you nuts. Remember it was a related field MBA you wanted, fastest way and cost was a problem.

After you get that MBA from QMUC, suggest you immediately enrol on an DBA program. We will work with you on the options available towards then towards the end of 2004.

Cheers.

J.R(ic)

 

That is totally bogus,
sorry, tokyomike,

in Europe, and especially in the UK, the state´s given authority of granting degrees (in the UK the so-called royal charter) is evaluation and quality ensurance on a far higher level than the US-like regional accreditation, whereas the US-like AACSB is maybe on a slightly higher level than the European state approvals - but only slightly. The AMBA thing is by far not as important as the AACSB for an American program, by far not.

All in all: the royal charter is important, not the AMBA thing...

Greets,
Trigger

(by the way, I wrote a book about this - or, more specifically, a chapter of a book (about accreditation)).

 

John, you are right. I finally got what I wanted, why get another mba? It's not needed. But I do like that sound of Dr. Spies! Perhaps a DBA in the future. Never would have thought that, not in a million. thanks again.

Triggersoft, I agree. The mba is already accredited by the government, why do I need an outsided body to do the same thing? Are they is some way more qualified to say that a program meets their standards and that the government's standards are too low?

 

John S, your killing this discussion. Your on the track of no return, go get the MBA from QMUC, show your boss you have it, then tell them your going for a DBA. At that point they will probably fire you for being too smart. Your response should be that you went this route to help them make more money and to improve the golf game.

Cheers again and have a great weekend.

J.R(ic)

 

John Spies & Triggersoft,

I take your points. You are of course correct when you state that Royal Charter is by far the most important factor. In this sense AMBA "acceditation" is not required for any legal reasons whatsoever.

To say it is "bogus" though is misleading. AMBA is not pretending to be an institution that makes MBA degrees legal. (I should have emphasised this when I first posted.) They are saying that there is a standard to which member schools (including Oxford, Henley and INSEAD) subcribe and AMBA accreditation assures that this standard is being met.

I realise that this may be an inappropriate standard for QMUC which offers specialised MBAs and is just starting the programme.

 

@ tokyomike:

I was not talking about legality, I was talking about evaluation. And that is done with Royal charter also, so I do not consider AMBA as a major important decision criteria, but maybe only as a nice bonus which is not necessary...

Greets,
Trigger

 

The better European business schools are starting to fight the “inflation” or “devaluation of currency” (i.e. the declining worth of the European MBA degree) which necessarily occurs when more and more institutions offer MBAs at more and more diverse (including lower) standards.

Whether one likes it or not, the following semi-official ranking is emerging:

· (“MBAs” from dodgy institutions which are not recognised by the national state authorities / ministries of education. Should not even be on this list of ranking, hence the brackets).
· MBAs from institutions recognised (or sometimes just tolerated?) by the national state authorities.
· MBAs which are accredited by AMBA http://www.mba.org.uk/ (especially for UK MBAs)
· MBAs which are EQUIS accredited by EFMD http://www.efmd.be/ (the emerging pan-European accrediting body for MBAs)

Both AMBA and EFMD (the latter supported by the European Commission) believe in peer review and have deans / professors of the better business schools on their awarding bodies. They believe an MBA is only meaningful after two or three years of professional experience (NOT if done straight after the first degree). They believe an MBA requires one year of full time study or its part time / distance equivalent which would be a minimum of 1.200 hours of personal work. They believe highly specialised degrees should not be called “MBA” but “Master of ……….”

The exact criteria and lists of accredited institutions can be checked on the websites.

I think there are two reasons why the EQUIS accreditation came about and why it will gain importance. (1) The European national state authorities have not been able to prevent the emergence of substandard MBAs which do not do the title justice - in the eyes of the better schools that is. (2) The masters degree in general and the MBA in particular are of “Anglo-Saxon” origin. Some European university systems (e.g. Germany’s) traditionally have degrees that are NOT directly comparable to “Anglo-Saxon” degrees. While Germany recognises accredited foreign MBAs, its own universities cannot confer the degree. This leads to the absurd situation that one of Europe’s top business schools (Germany’s WHU) can only offer an MBA in association with accredited foreign business schools such as Kellogg. An EU-recognised, pan-European accreditation of MBAs would get around this problem. (This is not the legal situation at the moment, but it appears to be heading that way.)

Does all this matter to North Americans who want to do a UK / European MBA by DL? Provided your own national DoE / academic institutions / employers or whoever recognise the validity of the European institution conferring the MBA, it is probably enough. If the university is famous and has a good name, that is enough. Royal Charter (in the case of UK degrees) should be your minimum standard. If you are not sure, just be aware that there are such things as “slipping standards”, “dumbing down” and “jumping on bandwagons” and that the standards for a good European MBA have been set. The serious schools, including institutions like INSEAD, LBS, Henley etc, who certainly need no accreditation to validate their MBAs (and could tell EFMD where to stick their EQUIS accreditation) are getting accredited to protect the worth of the European MBA.