I have offers from Cardiff MBA and Birmingham Msc in International Business. I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from a University in Greece and nearly one and half year of work experience. Which is the most beneficial choice of the two programmes ? Which of the two has better career prospects ? higher average salary ? higher employment rate ? Which of the two in your opinion is more suitable to choose ?

Not much of a difference between them. Are you planning to move to Asia? If not, perhaps one of these will be better: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-management-2012

In fact i plan to work for some years in the UK and then return for work in Greece. If you had to chooce which of the options would it be and why ?

Neither of those are good options. Both are programmes aimed at south and east Asian students who will return to their own country. Neither is especially effective at placing students in jobs in Europe or the UK. For mobility, you should aim for ESCP London, LSE, Strathclyde, Cass, Imperial, Bradford, Aston or Edinburgh. To maximise your chances to work in the UK, don't take a course in international business: those courses are critical and academic. Take one in management, finance, marketing, strategy etc...

If you really had to choose, then accept Birmingham and start now to campaign to move to a different course there.

Thank you for your answer duncan ! Is it feasible now to require from the university to move to a difficult course ? and how can i do that ? As for Cardiff MBA do you think it is not a good degree for employment in the uk and europe ? taking into consideration that it is an AACSB accredited MBA, it is a member of the Russel group and it offers the option of specialization in its programme.

Thank you for your answer duncan ! Is it feasible now to require from the university to move to a different course ? and how can i do that ? As for Cardiff MBA do you think it is not a good degree for employment in the uk and europe ? taking into consideration that it is an AACSB accredited MBA, it is a member of the Russel group and it offers the option of specialization in its programme.

Ask Birmingham about changing. They will be open to conversation. No, although Cardiff has AACSB-accreditation, it does not have a record of good placement for its alumni because no work experience is required, and because few students stay in Europe.

Just a few other points about Cardiff. Indeed, it's part of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. But that does not mean that it's better for placement. Queen Mary, Cardiff and Queen's are in the Russell Group while Bath, Cranfield, London Business School and Lancaster are not.

Also AACSB accreditation is not well known in the UK. The main accreditation bodies in Europe are AMBA and EQUIS, and AACSB accreditation shows that a school is serving the market outside the EU. With pre-experience MBA courses you can't expect very different outcomes from an MSc. If you want a pre-experience course, use the FT MiM ranking.

Hi Duncan,

I graduated from Cardiff Business School with my first degree and I can say that the quality of students and teaching are superb based on my personal experience. However, I am really curious how Cardiff MBA has become a freshers MBA as of now. As far as I know, it was really popular back in the 80s to 90s. How did it end up to be in such a pathetic state?

Well, the traditional MBA is a competitive market, and a freshers' MBA is less demanding and more economical. It gives Cardiff a huge niche, as the only AACSB freshers MBA in Europe. It a huge programme, so a commercial success.

Well, the traditional MBA is a competitive market, and a freshers' MBA is less demanding and more economical. It gives Cardiff a huge niche, as the only AACSB freshers MBA in Europe. It a huge programme, so a commercial success.

But to do that it would have to close the freshers MBA, and that would kill the business model.