http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-09-20/medvedev-skolkovo-business-school.html

Has anyone looked into this school? It seems like there has been quite some hype going on about Skolkovo recently, but I haven't really been keeping up to date about Russian MBAs (focusing mostly on Asia admittedly), so I'm hoping someone out there could update me on the state of Russian MBAs.

Skolkovo has recently been named by the Russian Federation as their site for an attempt at a homegrown version of Silicon Valley. The Moscow School of Management in Skolkovo is Russia's school for training entrepeneurs who could function and thrive in BRIC countries, and I assume lead the technical revolution to take place in Russia. The program is 16 months long, 4-5 months in-class, and the rest will be on the job work experience in 1) Russia, 2) China or India (your pick), and 3) USA. I haven't seen the list of corporations that has enrolled into the program, but I would be curious as to the type and level of corporate experience offered by this new school. It seems to be very work-experience learning based, which could potentially be very valuable to younger applicants. It does seem to be heavily driven towards building connections and hands-on experience than it is on teaching theory.

www.thinq.co.uk/2010/5/20/cisco-nokia-join-russian-silicon-valley/

Definitely does seem like the whole "Russian Silicon Valley" idea is catching on. Seeing that Russia has a lot of raw talent that can be utilized, I wonder how valuable an MBA from a federally endorsed MBA program located in Skolkovo can be in the future. I kind of wonder how well it would compare to already established programs like the one at Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University, the two universities often considered to be the twin peaks of Russian education generally.

Guess the program is so new there's no one who even has somewhat of an opinion on it. I thought it was a pretty interesting/exciting program, being focused on the BRIC economies and their interaction with more developed economies and all. Also the networking opportunities seem to be top class for Russian business, since the tuition is high, yet the majority of the class is Russian. Russians who can fork out 60k in tuition without much support must be well connected. In countries like Russia, those connections go much further than one would normally expect.

Hopefully within the next couple years there can be a better discussion on the school and it's place in wealth creation. Once employment stats come out there may be more discussion. For those interested in the BRIC route this could be an interesting program, though it's a very young program and has no merits just yet (so that's probably a big downer at the moment). If the program can produce good employment stats within the year, the program would shot straight up, especially if starting salaries are extremely high.

SKOLKOVO MBA programme already admits its 4th intake and there is something to be proud of. The first Alums got their job offers at the leading international companies (and also by the SKOLKOVO founding partners) - up to40%, while 50% started their own business. 10% are employed within social or public field.

Currently the admission process for the September intake is going on. You are welcome to apply or get your answers at [email protected]

The program looks interesting but:
1) what are the chances for people not speaking russian to find a job through your network?
2) isn't your mba a little overpriced ? (at 65000e... ok you accomodations are included but still it seems a little expensive considered that you have not international accreditation)

thank you

Dear Maubia,
thank you for your questions - in fact, we adore to answer them as wecan tell about SKOLKOVO MBA programme more :)
1) 50% of SKOLKOVO MBA students body are foreign students (Germany, UK, US, Brazil, India, Peru, Egypt etc) - 40% out of them are looking for an employment in Russia or other BRIC countries. And in fact this is what SKOLKOVO Career Development Office runs. Nicholas from Brazil got his offer with SKOLKOVO founding partner, SunGroup, and currently works in Moscow, Marcus from Brazil already signed his offer with one of Multinationals and will be located in Moscow (even before his graduation from the programme) etc. Career services is a great plast of the educational agenda and we take care of our foeign students as well. Another interesting point - when foreigners start their businesses in Russia. If you ar interested to contact our foreign students who launch their businesses here, in Russia - do not hesitate asking me additionally or just drop a message to [email protected]

2). The tuition fee for SKOLKOVO MBA is EUR 60 000, which includes everything you may need for your studies:
- educational services
- coaching
- individual leadership development program
- educational materials
- a laptop
- accommodation for 12 months in China, Russia, the US
- flights in and off international modules

If you consider the total cost for MBA programme, including accommodation and hidden fees, you will be surprised how much exactly in total the cost will be :)
We just included everything in the tuition, so that the students just pay for pocket costs and food.

Thank you for your prompt answer.. but did the foreign students already know Russian? because if it's difficult to find a job in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium without being fluent in the local language.. well,I guess that it's rather difficult in Russia as well.
Do you have stats about salary?

It's unusual, almost unique, that the programme has one semester of teaching and then a year of project work (Pisa has a similar structure). That's good for entrepreneurs, but won't it make it hard for the programme to get accreditation?

2 Maubia:

right you are - foreigners in Russia have much more chances to get employed when they speak Russian, that is why Russian course is included in the educational agenda and we have quite bright examples how foreign students study Russian just in a year time! For instance, our graduate from Austria really speaks Russian by the end of the programme, so that we can speak with him in Russian.

2 Duncan:

Thanks for your note! That's a really wonderful opportunity for entrepreneurs, as the programme is focused at developing entrepreneurial skills and allows to build own business as well.

SKOLKOVO MBA is a really unusual and unconventional programme, that is why we are not concerned about accreditation. Our Dean even says that "We are ambitious enough to work out our own accreditation rules and elaborate a new ranking in few years time'.

Let's see how the time turns out... But here, in SKOLKOVO, the most ambitious and quite unrealistic dreams come true :) - otherwise we could have not experienced a new class of quite ambitious and entrepreneurial students all over the world every year :)

What are the most important influecing factors for choosing an MBA programme? Just getting interested about the current preferencies of site visitors:

1) focus or specialization

2) personal and professional development opportunities

3) salary boost or career shift

4) networking and community

Looking forward for your answers.

Hi,
1) Placement/job opportunities (I need a job to pay back the loan)
2)International brand (I need an mba that I can spend in my country in case I can't find a job abroad).. and actually there are not many mba brands that I could spend in Italy.
3)program (it must be a good mix of theory and practice).. actually I want to learn and apply interesting theory, idea, ecc.
4)financial aid.. An mba providing schoolarships, loans, ecc is very actractive in this period!

Hi Maubia!

Sounds great :)

Have you already done your priority list? I mean which schools do you choose from?

yes... of course :-)

Let's say that my top choice is Cranfield (reasonable price,
very good placement, ranking, students' feedback)

For other reasons I m considering Warwick,Tiasnimbas and St. Gallen as well. St.Gallen is very demanding in term of price but if you find a job in Switzerland later..well, not much difficult to pay back your investment (Tiasnimbas would be great for the destination... relocating to the Notherlands would be super).

So, you look positively towards relocation opportunities within EU?

Well.. it's not the best period to be in Italy now :-)
By the way I'm searching an experience abroad.. considering that my english is not bad and my french is nearly good enough for work I can assume to have some chance in:
Uk, France, Netherlands, Belgium,-Switzerland-.... and outside EU (when opportunities arise)