Hi,

I have received offers from Liverpool, Westminster, Glasgow and Kent Business school. I am a HRM professional with 7 years of experience in India and am looking for a budget MBA from UK. I do not have many plans for international mobility or to change my area. I just want to add a value MBA with optimized cost to my CV to increase my prospects in my field itself for better placements.
Can you please help me in finalizing my selection and also your valuable inputs for other options as I think there is still time to apply to many universities for Sep 15 intake?

You literally have not other goals than getting an MBA? Electives, pedagogy, alumni network, personal development etc make no difference for you?

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for the response.

Well, electives in HRM/strategic HRM/Employee relations/Project management (my work experience has been more related to accounting and HRM roles with infrastructure development multinationals) and accounting; pedagogy of course matters; alumni network, as my perception is, values 30%-40% of the MBA cost and of course personal development (I have masters in commerce and post-masters work experience of 7 years in executive and managerial roles).
The constraints are - not a good GPA in undergraduates (and as I found the masters GPAs dont matter much which I have first class) and have not taken GMAT; cost I want to optimize.
So, under these constraints how can I optimize my goals?

The Kent programme is new, but underwhelming, with a very small set of electives. It's exam based, so that doesn't suggest leadership development or team work are priorities. I would exclude Liverpool: it doesn't have AMBA accreditation, but of course they do have a good alumni network in China. Glasgow and Westminster look good. They have a good balance between the core, personal skills and a wide elective range. But these are very different cities and, since cost is a factor, Glasgow gives you both a much more prestigious university and a much cheaper city.

Hi Duncan,
Thanks indeed.
I am planning to apply to Aberdeen, Loughborough and Portsmouth for which I satisfy the entry requirements and also they sort of match my requirements. I see their advertisements about high placement statistics. Out of these I also know Loughborough has triple accreditation whereas other two have AMBA. Can I please get your opinion about these options as well?

Thanks again.

Which university in Aberdeen? It's a very expensive city.

Plenty of discussion on the board about these schools.

If placement is a concern for you, then you need to book at different schools.

Hi Duncan,

If I am not mistaken, the University of Aberdeen MBA does not have AMBA accreditation (for that matter I could not see any accreditation). I meant RGU Aberdeen Business School.

Yes I can see a lot of discussion about these schools and more I see more I sort of get confused. Am I correct with the rank as 1)Loughborough, 2)RGU Aberdeen, 3) Portsmouth (Although I could not actually find any sort of rank for any of them).

Are you saying that for placements none of these universities have any sort of support or reasonable reputation although they have programs with some internships after a year (Loughborough and Portsmouth)?

Thanks again!

RGU has good placement into oil and energy. My guess is it will have better careers services than Loughborough. I would not consider Portsmouth.

I think I would pick Glasgow over RGU, unless you want to work in oil.

Thanks very much for your valuable inputs!