Iam Egyptian , pharmacist , product specialist medical representative with 5 years experience asking about EDinburgh business school online MBA? What about the quality of the program? I know it has no aacsb or Amba but what do you think about its program?

[Edited by karimmomo911 on Nov 22, 2014]

I think it's worth reading comments about that Heriot-Watt degree elsewhere on this site. Quality is clearly not the main feature of that programme. You don't need a degree to enter it, unusually for a masters' degree, You'll generally have either almost no interaction, or none at all, with the faculty named as teaching the course. I does not have accreditation for a good reason...

The issue that is very strange that we have here in Egypt the American university which is accredited by triple accreditation and it has a partnership with Edinburgh business school to teach its modules in MBA although EBS has no accreditation . So if u look at this point i think it is a positive one but i see many reviews about online mba in EBS that it is self learning without any interactive lecturer and it has a very difficult exams and that is the weak point

What part of that is strange? An accredited MBA is really expensive. In Egypt there is lots of demand for a cheap alternative. That's the same as Prada having MiuMiu or Volkswagen having Seat.

The MBA is more than the content. Indeed, the EBS courses are written by good academics, although the materials are sometimes very old. But the MBA experience is more than the reading, otherwise you would join a library. Maybe AUC has more impressive lecturers than most people delivering the EBS MBA?

The strange part is that the course provided by AUC is AmbA accredited which is the same materials of EBS which has no AMBA and that is very strange. Here in egypt the only school accredited by world accreditation is AUC while most of applicants go forward ESLSCA here due to the cheap price .here in egypt the triple accreditation is not an important matter .the most important to be a good mateiral and program and that issue is very popular here in Arab region toward accredited or not

[Edited by karimmomo911 on Nov 23, 2014]

Well, the difference between accreditation and non-accreditation is not about the materials: otherwise you'd join a library. But a simple glance at the AUC MBA shows that the course is very different in design from the EBS MBA, and so it's impossible that most of the courses are AUC are taught with the EBS materials.

So what you suggest for me about non accredited school but has a good distance learning MBA ??any suggestion

i think this really depends on your goals. If you want to learn the core content of an MBA, but not have the experiential element of top MBA, then I'd suggest you take the LSE's online Diploma for Graduates in Management: http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/courses/diploma-graduates/lse/diploma-graduates-management

But there are no good DL MBAs which are not accredited.

Thanks duncan for your support

Last thing can i find online MBA accredited only from AMBA not aacsb at the range of 9-10 GBP???if you can help

Try http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cheapest+aascb+online+MBA&l=1

[Edited by Duncan on Nov 24, 2014]

You are the best..thanks

Guys please do some research.. Heriott Watt is an internationaly accredited British University, Through the Royal charter.. (which is the official accreditation and recognition by the British government that all Universities in the UK need to have to be recognised as legitimate degree granting universities.. as far as I know no one ever disregarded a degree from one of the oldest Universities in the UK) 40%of the fortune 500 companies sponsor their employees to study at EBS http://www.ebsglobal.net/programmes/accreditation
and organisations such as Amba are private clubs not government institutions.. so in my opinion official recognition by the gov. is more credible
and the fact that in exceptional cases you do not need a degree to enter is symptomatic of the British education system which gives the opportunity to anyone who has the ability to suceed in the program.. but exam as you read are very hard and you communicate as much as you want with the professor through email, forums, phone, live seminars and you can travel to meet them in the UK if you so desire

[Edited by elnaggar.ahmed on Jan 17, 2015]

I think you're mistaken to say that a UK Royal Charter is a better guide to the relative quality of an MBA than accreditation by a body like AMBA. Every university in the UK has a Royal Charter, so all MBAs by British universities are legal and meet minimum criteria, both the best and the worst. AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB accreditation requires a higher level of quality, and that is why all the best business schools in Europe, without exception has international accreditation for their MBAs.

I have looked at the faculty listed on the EBS MBA website (http://www.ebsglobal.net/programmes/faculty-and-authors) and it is certainly not the case that these people will be available to students on the MBA. A minority of them work for EBS, and one cannot be assured that the others will be available. These people wrote the course materials for the MBA, and some of those materials were written a long time ago: some have retired, others have died... I think it would be good to know which of the 'faculty' actually are part of the active team for the distance learning MBA.

It is not "symptomatic of the British education system" that people without university qualifications can enter post-graduate degrees. That is very rare, and I am surprised to see it described as if it is a good thing.

It is very logical and appropriate. . It does not make sense for someone with 20 years of management experience to learn basic accounting skills for example.. and you do not matriculate into the MBA program unless you successfully complete 3 courses thus proving your abilities as a graduate student.. besides AUC or Ain Shams Univ. do not allow you to register through them without a bachelor degree whith good standing.. As a general rule if you are smart enough to succeed in the Harvard MBA for example, you shoud be given the chance regardless of your background..
In regard to the availability of professors most them who wrote the books were readily available for the students to contact and in case of replacements.. the Biographies and credentials are always posted on HW website.
Finally there are lots of schools that have AMBA etc.. accreditations and are not recognized by their own governments.. The British Standard
is recognized internationaly as being more than adequate and is accepted by all employers that I ever heard of (and considered superior in many countries) .. I never saw a CV mentioning AMBA etc.. or heard of an employer requiring a private accreditation for an MBA.. no one I know was EVER asked about private accreditation for his MBA.. or given preferential treatment for that.. What only matters is if you graduated from a reputable institution.. that's a fact of life.. It is a way for business schools to make huge margins out of our pockets..
Did i mention thar 99% of hiring manager in this part of the world did not graduate from schools privately accredited..
Of course It will not hurt if you can afford it.. but my point is that it is not necessary

[Edited by elnaggar.ahmed on Jan 18, 2015]

I don't agree. There are lots of managers who struggle to operationalise the basic differences between fixed and variable costs, between profit and contribution... and so on. Many MBA candidates find basic accounting and finance to be the most challenging part of the MBA. But the point is this: the MBA isn't just a training programme. It is a masters degree. As a general rule, at Harvard and all of the world's top business schools, you need a undergraduate degree to get into a masters degree.

You are mistaken about the authors being available. As I have written, many are dead or have retired. For example, please tell me how much communication you have had with authors who are not on the HW faculty.

Can you point to an AMBA-accredited programme that is not recognised by its government and is in a country where recognition of universities is a government task?

You mistaken when you say that international accreditation is less meaningful than national accrediation. In this respect please see Why international accreditation matters http://www.find-mba.com/board/41224 There is a substantial premium for international accreditation.

I do not doubt that 99% (and more) of jobs are not for people with internationally-accredited MBAs. My point is that it is a bad investment to take an MBA without international accreditation if there is a choice to take one with it.

[Edited by Duncan on Jan 18, 2015]

- yes those who struggle with basic management concepts will obviously not succeed in graduate studies of management.. my point exactly
- As a general rule most in the program (at least in my School 'AUC') do have an undergraduate degree with good standing.. BUT there are always exceptions in everything .. if a candidate can demonstrate his abilities and have the necessary prerequisites, it is wrong to penalize him/her
- Factually and from experience I had no problem finding support from the professors (ask any HW student).. they respond to emails, are available in the forums and there are live seminars that you can attend.. they responded even after completing the courses when I needed some advise.. you expect the faculty to stop using quality material because the author is retired or deceased.. that would be kind of ridiculous.
- After completing my MBA, I almost enrolled in MSM for the DBA program which is privately accredited just to discover it is not recognized by the Deuch gov. same for SMC University.. both diplomas would have been useless to me locally.. as the only accreditation that is required in this part of the world is the official gov. accreditation.
- Again British Universities are internationally recognized and accepted in term of academic standards (this cannot be disputed) and in the real world that’s what matters.. you earn more money because your employer recognizes the reputation of the institution you graduated from not because it is privately accredited
I agree with you that if all things being equal, it is logical to choose triple accreditation, however that is rarely the case.. couldn’t justify paying the significant difference in fees out of my student loans

[Edited by elnaggar.ahmed on Jan 18, 2015]

Actually, you are mistaken. People who initially struggle with basic finance and accounting are often able to be modestly successful managers, and they are able to improve their effectiveness through MBAs and other development work which improves their capacity.

I'm am happy that you get responses from HW staff. I was not suggesting that you would not: quite the opposite. I was suggestign that you would only hear from the staff, and not from most of the academics listed on the HW MBA website.

You are mistaken about MSM. Higher education courses in The Netherlands and Flanders are accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). MSM is accredited by the NVAO. That is the same state accreditation held by all Dutch Universities. Because NVAO accreditation is for courses taught in the The Netherlands and Flanders, it does not apply to diplomas issued outside the Netherlands. That is nothing special about MSM or its DBA.

You are mistaken when you say that British standards are all that matter. As I show in my post about why accreditation matters, not all universities in a country are of the same standard. In Britain, the salaries differ massively between difference MBA programmes' alumni. You are right that salaries are a good indicator, and accredited programmes produce higher salaries.

again simple logic dictates that if someone has the necessary knowledge enabling him to succeed in a course.. he should be given the chance

If that was true than why is the MSM MBA thaught outside the Netherlands has gov. recognition and not the DBA and what about SMC

Lets not kid ourselves in the practical world 'comparing candidates schools' is only a very small part of the hiring process providing you graduated from reputable inst. ( if you graduated from somewhere like Oxford or the handfull top schools that's different ).. there are a ton of other criteria.. interview, network, experience etc..since employers do not ask for private accreditation .. this is not what we should be focusing on.. hek we can also use the extra money for another certification like a CFA for example

[Edited by elnaggar.ahmed on Jan 22, 2015]

I'm sorry, but you really are mistaken. Because NVAO accreditation is for courses taught in the The Netherlands and Flanders, it does not apply to diplomas issued outside the Netherlands. Therefore the editions of the MSM MBA taught fully outside the Netherlands cannot be NVAO accredited. Do these programmes involve trips to the main MSM campus? I don't know, or really care, about how NVAO draws the line.