I've been getting a bit curious about MBA programs in Australia and New Zealand, and was wondering if anybody here was too... Basically, I was looking at Otago's MBA program, and to me it's attractive for a number of reasons, a main one being affordability... Less than $25k in American dollars.

It's in "Dunedin," a city in NZ. I've never heard of it but I'd imagine it's probably more affordable to live there than, say, Sidney. What I'd be concerned about though is networking... A place like Dunedin might not have a large business community, although I may be mistaken.

The benchmark I'm using is AGSM, which is a pretty great university but at about twice the cost of Otago's program. But it's in Sidney, which is probably a better place to network, however, living expenses would probably be higher.

It's a trade off, I guess... Any insight?

Hi Richard
I am director of executive programmes at Otago, so I may have strong views in a particular direction! The "affordability" of the Otago MBA will obviously shifts with currency movements and we try to remain competitive. The international fee for 2010 was NZD36k (approx USD25k). The kiwi dollar has been as low as USD0.50 in the past year or so, making the fee USD18k. I have lived in Sydney and Dunedin and the cities are similar but different. Sydney is a large cosmopolitan city with 4.4m people and Dunedin is a large cosmopolitan university town with 120,000 people. The low cost of living in Dunedin is reflected in the fact that 25% of the population are students. Regarding networking, New Zealanders are passionate about networking, some say the country is one big village and travel for business and pleasure is a strong part of the culture, nationally and internationally. The manageable size of Dunedin promotes very active local networking. Every MBA student has a local business mentor and they meet every month. The mentors are senior bankers, lawyers consultants etc who have worked in various countries. Our small class size is also a key factor...there is no place to hide! Our upper limit is 30 students. This year we have 20 students from ten countries on the MBA. They are joined by 5 local part-time students to make a class of 25, which makes for a very engaging experience, again promoting international networking. We also have a first class international exchange programme. Regarding AGSM, it is a first class university and a world-class MBA programme - you would not go wrong by choosing AGSM. Good luck!

Hi, yes AGSM is the top ranked university in Australia and has a strong global reputation, so I'm sure you'd get a good ROI.