I am thinking of doing a distance learning MBA. I am British but live and work in Hong Kong, so I want to do a course where the taught element is in Hong Kong, and involves minimum time off work (overseas travel for the taught elements is not an option as you don?t get much annual leave in HK!). I also don?t know how long I?ll be in HK, so I need a course that I can complete elsewhere if needed, most likely it would be back in the UK.

My background is:
MA (Honours) English - Univerity of St Andrews 2:1
MSc Commercial Property Management ? Liverpool John Moores

I am a Chartered Surveyor with 6 years? work experience, and about 3 ? 4 yrs management experience (managing junior team members, projects and real estate portfolios). My career is starting to move in the direction of real estate private equity, and for this reason I think an MBA would be very useful ? giving me the more generalist business understanding to combine with my technical real estate knowledge. An MBA seems to be almost a given in private equity, and many of the investment opportunities we look at have an operational business angle rather than pure real estate ? as I don?t have a business or finance background I think what I learn on the MBA will help me immensely.

The options I?m considering are:

- Manchester Business School Global MBA
- Royal Holloway, University of London MBA in International Management

Both courses conduct face to face teaching in HK.

I?m aware that Royal Holloway did not score highly on the The Economist Rating, however a large part of this is down to the low percentage who complete the course ? I think this could be put down to the structure of the course allowing you to exit part way through with a Certificate in International Management.

MBS
- Very highly regarded
- Double the price of University of London

RHUL
- Good value for money
- Allows you to take 3 courses on a module basis ? meaning I can try one course before I commit, to ensure I can balance the workload with work and life.

I am veering towards Royal Holloway for the reasons above, although this distance learning course is itself not very highly rated by the Economist, the University of London is well-regarded and internationally recognized so I think should be beneficial on my CV.

I would welcome any comments on my thinking, particularly from anyone who has done either of these courses in Hong Kong.

P.S. As I meet the academic criteria and am a native English speaker it seems there is no need for me to do GMAT or IELTs unless they specifically ask for it, is that correct?

How about Henley, Durham or Warwick? The Royal Holloway course won't give you a powerful alumni network, which those others will, and the low completion rate has to be taken seriously.

I was doing similar research into MBA that allows me to take face to face components in Hong Kong, Strathclyde and Bradford came up.

I decided against Bradford becasue it is not AACSB accredited.

Strathclyde is triple accredited, and on its prospectus, states that you can transfer between Full time, Part time, overseas and distance learning mode at later time.

I am enrolled in Strathclyde for distance learning, and have made arrangement to take the mandatory session in Hong Kong in October.

Steve,
Any feedback on your DL MBA and the workshops in HK?
Thanks