Hi everyone,

I’d appreciate some guidance here on choice of MBA between the schools above-mentioned. I have offers from them. I’ve got 9 years work experience in Sales and Business Development and also some experience in market entry strategy.


1. I’m looking to transition fully into consulting and there are some firms I’m targeting- Strategy& (PWC Advisory basically), Deloitte, Accenture, PA Consulting and EY. These firms have robust Technology and Innovation Strategy Consulting practices. Which of these schools can give me the leverage to get into any of such firms?


2. I’m more inclined to attend Durham because of their sustained FT MBA & European Business Schools rankings. However I’ve observed Leeds have more advanced cohorts than the other schools. And Strathclyde is in a city I love, Glasgow and also has a growing reputation.


3. Again, a good look at the MBA curricula of the 3 schools, takes Durham to the top of the pile. And the alumni also speak very highly of the programme (bit of bias perhaps).


I’m not swayed by the allure of scholarships because I know how misleading such offers can be so it’s not influencing my decisions here. And I’m also not looking to join the MBB firms so my choice of firms and practice is absolutely deliberate. Please correct me if I’m missing something here. Which school would give me the leverage for a good placement? I’m intending to stay back in the UK post MBA for work.

Thank you.

[Edited by Obinna on Dec 14, 2022]

I am no expert in this field but as far as I know, Durham has a greater number of graduates working at Deloitte, EY, and PWC. Graduates from Leeds and Strathclyde can be seen working at those firms but Durham leads in terms of quantity according to LinkedIn Alumni function observation.

I joined PA Consulting eight years after university, so similar level of work experience to you. Admittedly it was a long time ago but from what I can remember, people were from a wide range of universities with Oxbridge at one end and some very ordinary universities at the other (myself included.)  

I worked in one of the technology practices and I assume strategy will be different. You can do this exercise yourself by searching 'strategy MBA' on Linkedin for current employees at PA Consulting then looking at the results when you filter by school. That seems to suggest the most common schools are Warwick, Alliance Manchester and Durham.

[Edited by aslamo on Dec 14, 2022]

I am no expert in this field but as far as I know, Durham has a greater number of graduates working at Deloitte, EY, and PWC. Graduates from Leeds and Strathclyde can be seen working at those firms but Durham leads in terms of quantity according to LinkedIn Alumni function observation.

I joined PA Consulting eight years after university, so similar level of work experience to you. Admittedly it was a long time ago but from what I can remember, people were from a wide range of universities with Oxbridge at one end and some very ordinary universities at the other (myself included.)  

I worked in one of the technology practices and I assume strategy will be different. You can do this exercise yourself by searching 'strategy MBA' on Linkedin for current employees at PA Consulting then looking at the results when you filter by school. That seems to suggest the most common schools are Warwick, Alliance Manchester and Durham.

I had a handful of colleagues in PA's Technology practice who had MBAs, a few had other masters degrees but I don't think it was much of a differentiator back then (early 2000s). It could be different today given much greater convergence between technology and business, digital transformation etc.