I am considering to apply for online MBA with limited budget (£20,000)

When I look through the MBA programmes offered by UK universities in top 50, I have found the following options.

1. Manchester Metropolitan University (Triple accredited but very low ranking, around £15,000)
2. Aston University (Triple accredited, medium ranking, around £19,000)
3. University of Essex (AMBA, medium ranking, around £12,000 but offered by Kaplan)
4. University of York (High ranking, around £13,000 but no accreditation)

I need to apply by mid-August. Which one should I choose in preference ?
Thanks.

What are your goals? Did you take a look at Find MBA Online, the sister site to this one? 

My goal is to gain business and management skills which would be helpful for me to move up to senior level in my career but also a wide range of and more job opportunities. Salary increase would be one of objective as well.

I didn't check the sister site.

I have no plan to work and move to UK in coming years. I'm currently working in East Asia.

[Edited by Thompson Lau on Jul 30, 2022]

If that is your budget then the much better options are Illinois and Boston universities. These are world class business schools at the same price point. I am not sure why you think York is well ranked. As an undergraduate university it is, but as a business school Aston is the best of the programmes you have listed. 

Thanks for your advice. University of York is ranked 19th according to QS. I would prefer UK universities to US ones.

[Edited by Thompson Lau on Jul 31, 2022]

Huh? Are you thinking of York University in Canada?

Britain's University of York is *unranked* in QS's 2021 ranking of the top 250 MBAs.  https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/mba-rankings/global/2021 

At the undergraduate level, it's not even in the top 25 *in the UK*:
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2022/business-management-studies 

I think it is ranked 19th overall. For business, its ranking is pretty low. Thanks for the clarification.

Should I choose an university with respeact to its overall ranking or subject ranking for my career prospect ?

[Edited by Thompson Lau on Jul 31, 2022]

This depends on your goals and location. if you were in the UK, a senior leadership apprenticeship would give you £14k to £19k of government funding on top of your budget and open up better schools like Cranfield, Henley or Manchester. 

Since you are in the Far East, I don't understand why you would want to focus only on UK schools when Boston University, whose MBA is broadly on a par with Imperial, Manchester, Warwick etc, is available in your budget. 

Almost certainly, you will want to use MBA rankings rather than generic undergraduate rankings. The QS ranking that lists York 19th in the UK, for example, doesn't reflect the leadership in the MBA market of far better business schools like LBS, Bayes, Cranfield, Aston, Henley, etc

[Edited by Duncan on Jul 31, 2022]

It is strange to see that Boston University and Illinois are not in QS Online MBA ranking list.

That is very strange, yes. 

The order of consideration should as follows, right?
1. Aston University
2. Manchester Met
3. University of York

I check that Online MBA is no longer offered by University of Essex.

Since you are in the Far East, I don't understand why you would want to focus only on UK schools when Boston University, whose MBA is broadly on a par with Imperial, Manchester, Warwick etc, is available in your budget.  

I missed Boston U MBA application deadline this year and I don't want to wait till January 2023 to start the study.

I quickly checked around the forums which discuss about affordable and well-accredited Online MBA in Europe. ESMT Berlin seems a good choice and I still can apply for the fall intake. Is it comparable with BU on the Online MBA offered?

At this point, I will apply Aston, Machester Met and probably ESMT Berlin.

One of my concerns is that I may not get a professional reference from my employers such that I need to apply for a few universities and see if any of those will not ask for it in the end.

[Edited by Thompson Lau on Aug 06, 2022]

Boston University has a better business school than ESMT. It also benefits from being part of one of the world's major research universities. Surely the Boston MBA also takes less time so you would not really finish later. 

Hi Duncan, are you referring to the Questrom online MBA?