Hi my first post here.







I am a General Manufacturing / Operations manager with no degree but lots of professional qualifications. I have a solid job that I have been doing for over 25 years and I would like to do an MBA programme to add a degree to my resume to go alongside my work experience. I am keen to pursue my career in manufacturing and looking for directorship in the near future or a role that offers further progression. I am 42 now and feel if I don’t do it now I never will.







I have been accepted into Bradford and Lancaster due to my work experience and professional qualifications but was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions. Do you think MMU is an option?







I basically chose Bradford and Lancaster due to the EMBA choices, location and triple accreditation.

[Edited by Gav77 on Jan 25, 2021]

MMU isn't worth considering but do look at Manchester. I assume you are in northern England.

Yes, I’m around 30 mins from Manchester.  What do you think about Lancaster or Bradford? 

Is Manchester worth the extra money on fees? 

Manchester MBAs earn around 50% more than Lancaster MBAs. Those schools are much, much better than Bradford. MBS is a much bigger school with a much stronger suite of MBA programmes, and the MBA is central to AMBS in the way it is not at LUMS. I notice that the LUMS EMBA director is a PhD student, while the Manchester Global MBA is directed by a full professor. 

Hi, If the fees are out of reach do you recommend any others?  I’m happy to do online or executive part time. 

Thanks so much got your input. 

For someone considering a board-level role, I would stop and think hard before you say that something is out of reach. Imagine if you increase your salary by 50%: what's the total value of that increase? Assuming you work for 25 more years, it's a massive amount of money. It's not hard to get financing. 

Stuart thanks for your reply and you do make perfect sense in what you say. A better business school degree will give a better salary so agreed it should not always come down to the cost of the course. 


You state its not hard to get financing, can you elaborate on this as I can only see part funding available for around 11k for masters courses for the government website, unless I am missing something? Are you talking about personal loans to cover this?

I suggest you speak to the admissions teams at the schools you are targeting. In a nutshell:
- Career development loans
- Senior apprenticeship scheme
- Scholarships
- Commercial loans

MMU isn't worth considering but do look at Manchester. I assume you are in northern England.

MMU is not better than the other schools you named, but the University of Manchester MBA is. Since you named schools that are close to each other, I assumed you must live somewhere in the middle, like Burnley. 

[Edited by Duncan on Jan 30, 2021]

MMU is not better than the other schools you named, but the University of Manchester MBA is. Since you named schools that are close to each other, I assumed you must live somewhere in the middle, like Burnley. 

Sorry for confusing you for someone else. 

No I think there are big gala between these schools in their brand equity, academic prestige and the quality of their students and alumni. The order of the MBAs is certainly Durham > Lancaster > Bradford > MMU. 

Sorry for confusing you for someone else. 

No I think there are big gala between these schools in their brand equity, academic prestige and the quality of their students and alumni. The order of the MBAs is certainly Durham > Lancaster > Bradford > MMU. 

[Edited by Gkeicjo on Jan 31, 2021]

I think that this order of priority will apply for almost all masters degrees in business, the with possible exception of consumer marketing, where Lancaster is very strong.