Hi,

I have received an offer from Cranfield from MSc in Logistics and Supply chain and I may get an offer from Audencia in Master in Supply Chain with a scholarship. I have also applied for UCD, Manchester and Durham for the same master courses but results are awaited.
I am an Indian with close to 9 years of Work experience in Supply chain and i wish to pursue a career in the same field post masters. My goal is ideally to find a job at in the country where I complete my fasters.
Which one is better Cranfield or Audencia? And if i get an offer from Manchester or UCD. What should be my preference?
Looking forward for your valuable comments.

Thanks
Nipun Goyal

I think Manchester and Cranfield are close enough that you should pick between a city-centre setting and a rural campus. Audencia is not so good; not even in the top 5 in France. Furthermore, you might not be able to work in French. I think the housing crisis in Dublin makes an entry-level role there really challenging. 

Thanks, Duncan for your valuable comments. Can you tell me more about the salary ranges for a mid-level professional with a master's degree in supply chain management from Cranfield or Manchester, and which of these two has a higher employability rate? According to the QS World Ranking, Manchester's supply chain is ranked sixth in the world, while Cranfield is ranked eleventh. The FT MBA ranking also places Manchester above Cranfield. So if i get an offer from Manchester, shall I accept that or still stick to Cranfield? (Tuition fees are same for both of the colleges)

Thanks 

The course structures for Cranfield and Manchester are different. I think you have a much wider range of electives at Cranfield which in my mind makes it a potentially more interesting curriculum.

You can do your own research into salaries, this information should be easily searchable online, including the two course websites which have some information about post-course destinations of students.

Hi I still have 2 Offers on Hand 

1. Cranfield Logistics and Supply Chain Msc (29670 Pounds)
2. Audencia Masters in Procurement and Supply Chain (13000 Eur after scholarship)

I know Cranfield is a better Business school than Audencia but I am still confused about whether it is justified to choose Cranfield over Audencia looking at the huge difference in tuition fees. I need your comment as I have deadlines to accept the offer by the 24th of this month, and unfortunately, i haven't received the final decision from Manchester and UCD. 

Look forward for your comments.

The latest FT 2023 ranking puts Audencia on 86th and Cranfield on 88th in Global MBA

Don't make your decision based on the difference in fees of less than 20,000 Euros. Think about the increase in lifetime earnings either of these courses will deliver. 

The supply chain job market in the UK has been quite healthy in recent years, I would favour Cranfield over Audencia.

[Edited by aslamo on Feb 17, 2023]

Unless you can now work in French at a professional level, then there's no reason to consider Audencia. Cranfield will have a better RoI financially, but France wins on healthcare. 

Thanks, Duncan and Aslamo, for your feedback. I am going ahead with Cranfield Logistics and Supply Chain Program. 

Hello, I have just received the offer from UCD for Msc Sustainable Supply Chain Management as well. I still want to check whether I should stick to Cranfield or change my decision to UCD Dublin. UCD is Ireland's top business school and is also ranked quite high in the FT European business school ranking. It has consistently performed well in the past three years; however, both schools have almost the same stats for the supply chain course. I am confused now. Please help. 

The outcomes are quite comparable. The course designs differ substantially, so probably one fits better with your career goals. At Cranfield the summer is spent on a huge individual project so that's a huge difference.  

Hi Nipun,

I saw your post and wanted to share my thoughts on the same. First of all your school selection shouldn't be based on just one year's FT ranking rather you should see a b school's average performance at least in the last 5-6 years. Coming to Audencia's ranking yeah it has been placed at 86th position this year but their MBA programme hasn't been ranked in the past decade, so in no way Audencia is a better B School than Cranfield. Now coming to the the MSc Supply Chain Management program, the QS ranking for the same in 2022 have placed Cranfield at 11th, UCD at 13th and Audencia at 16th so this very much proves that Cranfield's MSc in Supply chain is much better than the other two. And finally given your 9 years of industry experience, I just wanted to know why aren't you looking for a MBA programme specialised in Supply Chain Management? In my opinion I think you should look for a MBA in Supply Chain Management rather than a Master's programme !!

Hi Nipun,

I saw your post and wanted to share my thoughts on the same. First of all your school selection shouldn't be based on just one year's FT ranking rather you should see a b school's average performance at least in the last 5-6 years. Coming to Audencia's ranking yeah it has been placed at 86th position this year but their MBA programme hasn't been ranked in the past decade, so in no way Audencia is a better B School than Cranfield. Now coming to the the MSc Supply Chain Management program, the QS ranking for the same in 2022 have placed Cranfield at 11th, UCD at 13th and Audencia at 16th so this very much proves that Cranfield's MSc in Supply chain is much better than the other two. And finally given your 9 years of industry experience, I just wanted to know why aren't you looking for a MBA programme specialised in Supply Chain Management? In my opinion I think you should look for a MBA in Supply Chain Management rather than a Master's programme !!

The outcomes are quite comparable. The course designs differ substantially, so probably one fits better with your career goals. At Cranfield the summer is spent on a huge individual project so that's a huge difference.  

Hi Nipun,

Cranfield is in the top 10 list in the UK and that's a huge deal. You can't compare Cranfield and UCD as they both have different levels of competition. In Ireland there are not many good B Schools so obviously UCD will standout but in UK when you have the likes of LBS, Imperial, Oxford, etc. even being in the top 10 in the UK is a huge achievement. The top 10 b schools in the UK are: 1. LBS, 2. Oxford, 3. Cambridge, 4. AMBS, 5. Imperial, 6. Warwick, 7. Durham, 8. Lancaster, 9. Bayes and 10. Cranfield and if you target b school is in this list then you shouldn't worry much. Now coming to you concern about the job market, yeah at present the scenario isn't that good and even if you are getting a degree from a top B school from the UK finding a job will be difficult but having said that it's just a temporary situation and will improve eventually. As per predictions the UK job market will improve by the end of 2023 or beginning bof 2024 so by the time you graduate which will be towards the end of 2024 the job market would have improved a lot and then you also have the PSW which will allow you to stay back for 2 more years to find a job there. So yeah at moment I would suggest you not worry about the job market and focus on other things like networking and maybe get some extra certifications which might help in future. 

I think you have viable ways forward in both the UK and Ireland. Personally, I think the cost of living around Dublin rules it out for me. The UK is better value and, even if things are messy here, we have more job vacancies and more of a labour shortage. 

My question is: do you need this MSc to find work? Maybe there are roles now that you could apply to.