When I looked around for a suitable Part-Time MBA and EMBA program in early 2008, I had a few prestigious and some less known MBA programs short-listed.

What mattered to me were:
a) the quality of the faculty and the classmates
b) the specific courses and the course content had to be relevant
c) the reputation of the school and the program
d) the lecture schedule needed to fit with my professional and family
e) I love close interaction with diverse teams, foreign cultures and travel
f) the total cost of the program needed to be affordable and good-value-for-money

In order to get some first-hand insights, I called up the program offices of the shortlisted business schools and requested to sit into one or two of their classes (typically on the weekend or evening). Some of them were big classes of 40+ and some of them where smaller with 10-20 participants. In some schools the professors put on a big show with little class contribution, in others the professor facilitated the case study discussions amongst the students and contributed some additional insights. This experience enabled me to further reduce my short-list to 3 programs before my final decision round.

a), b), c)
When I evaluated the various programs, I found that many of them would meet my expectations regarding quality and course content. I think that the top 4 universities in Hong Kong and their respective programs all have a very good reputation. So from my pre-course perspective the decision really came down to criteria d), e) and f).

d)
I found that the OneMBA courses and schedule (once a month, 3-4 days on the weekend) very attractive and well compatible with my busy professional schedule and family commitments. At that time I was not able to commit to week-day evening classes (due to frequent overtime work) and weekly Saturday classes (due to work related travel). But I could commit to the monthly 3 days (long weekend) and plan my other commitments around this schedule. Similar for the 4 times one week residencies ? it?s just like planning any other week-off from work.
(see http://www.onemba.hk/main/onembaInDetailProgramStructure)

e)
As a European citizen and Permanent Hong Kong Resident, I enjoyed the diverse student mix at the CUHK OneMBA program (typically Hong Kong, Mainland Chinese, and Western) and beyond that the idea of interacting and cooperating in global teams with even more diverse students from RSM, UNC, EGADE and FGV.
But the ultimate experience were the on-site residencies in the USA (at the time when the financial crisis started), in Europe: Netherlands & Turkey, in Latin-America: Mexico & Brazil, in Asia: India & China & Hong Kong. I'm not aware of any other EMBA program that provides participants with the opportunity to get such a vast exposure to first-hand experiences in such diverse business cultures. Only if we experience the various cultures ourselves and see different types of business operations with our own eyes, we can truly appreciate the differences and communalities - and from there draw our own conclusions of what we should or want to learn from these experiences.

f)
Since the CUHK pricing for the OneMBA program did not include the travel costs for the residencies (i.e. Air ticket, Hotel, Transport, Food) I budgeted an additional 100k HKD for travel in addition to the OneMBA tuition fee (that was 358k HKD for class of 2010) so the total cost was approx 460-500k HKD for my OneMBA study. I think this compared favorably to other programs of similar quality and standing.

Overall:
I think that program was a very good experience. The schedule, topics and class work were demanding but adequate for the level of this course. The professors set high standards for the class and were supportive to less experienced students when needed.
The project work within the global teams was at times very challenging but feasible. I think that working in dispersed teams and across multiple time zones is a learning experience by itself - and comparable with the working experience in large multi-national companies. Maybe that's why a significant number of students actually comes from MNCs or even get sponsorship from their company to attend the OneMBA program.

Having completed the OneMBA program in late 2010, I think it was well worth the money, the effort and the time I had invested in it. For me it was the perfect fit. I have learned a lot new knowledge and skills that are relevant to my work and to fulfilling my ambitions. I made new friends both in Hong Kong and around the world. I have access to approx. 900 OneMBA (Alumni and Students) around the world and thousands of CUHK MBA Alumni mostly in Hong Kong and Asia.

To form your own opinion visit www.onemba.hk, contact the OneMBA program office, come to the information session or request to sit into the actual OneMBA lecture. Then you can make an informed decision if this program is right for you.

Cheers,
-Stephan

CUHK OneMBA Alumni 2010.

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OneMBA Class Size:

I have uploaded a picture of the recent Asian residency of the OneMBA class of 2012 for your viewing at http://www.find-mba.com/university/545/photos/782

As Duncan noted in another thread the program is a cooperation of 5 Universities on 4 continents, the typical global class size is approx. 100 students. Some of the universities contribute a larger number of students and others a smaller.

With regards to the specific OneMBA class size at CUHK I can provide the following first-hand information: From the original 14 students in the OneMBA class of 2010 at CUHK, 2 students dropped out in the 1st term and 12 students graduated. I think the total global class size in my class of 2010 was approx. 110 students.

I understand that CUHK plans to increase the number of OneMBA students at CUHK to approx. 20 for the current intake and 25 for the next intake - without compromising on the quality of students and the study experience. A similar effort is being made at other participating universities e.g. FGV (Sao Paolo) and EGADE (Monterrey).

When it first came to my attention in 2003 about this program, while it was only a baby (1 year old), I didn't have much expectation over it for reasons that I've been in the managerial positions for long and what will I learn anything differently from such a course. Nevertheless, I wanted to do something different rather than just putting all my focus on work and travel (I didn't have a life at all). So, I made a 'causal' decision to enroll it and eventually got accepted.

In the first day, there were 10 other local students sitting in the conference room attending the Orientation class and it surprises me that we have people (out of these 10) coming out of 7 different nations. Not to mention that we also have many more people from different countries and cultures in the global school.

After graduations and through these last few years of observation, I have witnessed that this program has become much more matured and strong in terms of the alumni base and diversity of cultures and experiences. I even have made the decision of quitting the highly-reward corporate job for 18+ years and become an entrepreneur and started my own consultancy company.

Now, I'm having the flexibility of choosing my clients (not when I was in the corporation life) and deliver what I think it's the best for them, rather than me having to spent hours and hours of presentations to justify all the stakeholders (not that it's not right, I just didn't like to do that), yet making good living. And, I can have a plan to my own time for traveling and wine tasting and clubbing, so to stay young........

OneMBA wasn't a causal decision after all.

For those prospective students interested in the actual class size of the OneMBA program, I have uploaded class pictures from ALL OneMBA classes since inception of the program (classes of 2004 to 2013) at this link:

http://www.find-mba.com/about/Stephan/photos

Cheers,
-Stephan

CUHK OneMBA Alumni 2010