It?s reached the stage where I can?t see the wood for the trees now: even though I enjoy poring over brochures and evaluating course offering, my circumstances mean my situation is not simple and I?d appreciate some external input.

I am a UK citizen relocating from Switzerland to Brisbane in mid-2013, for four years at least while my wife follows an opportunity. Aged 47, with 30 years of Engineering experience currently managing several high-tech teams as an interim manager. Qualifications: Honours degree Electronics, MSc Specialist Management discipline and PG Diploma in Strategy & Innovation.

Until now I have been vacillating between a distance/low attendance and an Exec MBA for a couple of years. My conclusion is that my needs would be best served by a top-tier EMBA which has global ranking that will be valued by clients or employers in Australia, Europe and SE Asia.

A modular course with attendance modules of 8 weeks a year, preferably in two-week blocks to minimise travel from Australia.

I am conscious both of the cost of Australian MBAs and their international standing ( or lack of it). Melbourne Business School for example is now asking 105kAUD for a weekend EMBA.

Can anyone recommend a suitable cohort or flexible EMBA course less than 60kGBP equivalent total fees? I will consider anything likely to be recognised in Europe or Australia.

The Australian local options of AGSM, MBS, QUT , UQ may not even be possible in EMBA form without a permanent visa, so I am looking further afield: NUS Asia Pacific APEX EMBA, or Manchester Global MBA(Singapore) would be a compromise.

The baseline for me is actually flying back 17 times to undertake the Oxford Said EMBA, so you can see how flexible/nuts I can be.

My future career as management consultant in a specialist industry is likely to continue in Europe in four years or less likely in Australia or SE Asia. My knowledge of US schools is limited, and would be considered if it has relevance outside US.

Any suggestions or recommendations appreciated.
BigD

When I did some of the executive courses at Oxbridge, yes there were nutters flying half-way-through-the-world from A NZ. But they are native citizens of A NZ so the appeal of Oxbridge may be so tempting.

When I look at top EMBA where the students have similar experience to yourself there is not one on the top of my head that is not asking for 100 grand. The APEX EMBA that takes you to underdeveloped countries in SEA is asking for that sort of money already.

If you are looking for Singapore specifically and it is a quite interesting destination to network. Besides service and financial industry, the tech sector is also thriving.

And they have these MBAs prgrammes for you to consider

1/ American Temple Fox MBA: 60k SGD. Only 1 or 2 batches with a nice campus.
2/ NUS-UCLA EMBA
3/ INSEAD EMBA
4/ INSEAD Tsinghua EMBA
5/ SPJain EMBA which is very thorough but predominantly Indian.
6/ Chicago Booth EMBA where you can go to London or Chicago to take courses.
7/ Aalto Finnish EMBA

In HK you can have these options:
1/ Kellogg-HKUST EMBA where you can go to study in Israel, Germany, Canada.
2/ Iowa Tippie EMBA
3/ HKU LBS CBS triple EMBA

If you stay in Australia, University of Western Australia Adelaide or Monash may be a bit less pricey yet pretty competitive. Also Carnegie Mellon has a campus there so you can see what they offer

NZ is also interesting even though they only have 1 or 2 moderate strong MBA programs such as Auckland or Otago

The Manchester program in Singapore does not match your seniority. Similar programs are Lancaster and Nottingham part-time MBA. You can also check out the Malaysia Nottingham campus.

The Melbourne EMBA is very good, and that's a well respected school. The Singapore and Hong Kong programmes are worth looking at. Kellogg, Booth, LBS and Insead are the obvious programmes to prioritise.

Many thanks for your replies. I am evaluating a number of these offerings both in Australia AGSM, Melbourne,UQ and QUT as well as NUS-UCLA. The LBS /Kellogg and other top tier or multischool offerings at over 120USD are simply out of my budget.

BigD

UQ and QUT don't have the international recognition.

It was kinda a missed opportunity that you did not take advantage of Swiss education system. There were some cheap and very very strong programs that is at a fraction of these top EMBA

This was deliberate, for reasons I won't go into here.

BigD

It was kinda a missed opportunity that you did not take advantage of Swiss education system. There were some cheap and very very strong programs that is at a fraction of these top EMBA

Sorry that was why I said kinda, I guessed there gotta be something.

No problem, it is not a personal issue, but more related to my experience (over many years) of the swiss way of doing things that made me a bit sceptical. So I'm looking elsewhere.

BigD

Sorry that was why I said kinda, I guessed there gotta be something.

QUT does have international recognition, it is the only Australian School to have Triple Accreditation. I have just recently completed EMBA there in 22 months, and the 4 weekly cohort style was excellent. Further to this, QUT live up to their Tagline "A university for the real world" their Lectures are a great mix of commercial people with their own businesses, and academics. One Draw back is that they are not on the Lists that everyone looks at which is a quite a shame and I feel that is more around the lack of marketing and because it was an Old institute of Technology. Further I was on Visa throughout the course so that is no draw back. I personally believe this is, an excellent EMBA course and well worth the money.

QUT has a really strong MBA with respected international accreditation. When I said that it doesn't have international recognition, I was referring to the applicant's comment, that they seek a "a top-tier EMBA which has global ranking that will be valued by clients or employers in Australia, Europe and SE Asia." QUT just isn't a global school. 70% or 80% of its MBA alumni will be in Australia, and there will be tiny numbers of graduates in Europe -- far too weak for employers to recognize it