Hi All,

My profile: Indian male aged 30 with 10 years of experience in marketing and sales.

GMAT score: 690 (quant 49, verbal 34)

I am interested in enrolling for a MBA in UK. However my budget is only INR 15,00,000 which converts to approx. GBP 15,000.

Is it possible to get admission into any good MBA program (not by ranking but by UK job prospects) within my budget or should I drop the idea?


Thanks,
Apoorva Arya

Does that budget also need to cover your living costs? A English-speaking MSc in mainland Europe might be more realistic. http://www.mastersportal.eu Their schools are often subsidised and the cost of living in lower. Schools like Erasmus, Bocconi, Copenhagen and the French grande ecoles can have excellent programmes.

PS Also look at the Esslingen MBA?

Hello Duncan and everyone,

I have identified some MBA programs in London which fit into my budget. I know that none of these programs is AMBA accredited, however it would be great if you could help me rank these programs. I have listed them down in ascending order of fees:

Glyndŵr University, London Campus
Buckinghamshire New University
University of Sunderland, London Campus
University of Wales Trinity Saint David, London Campus
West London
London South Bank
East London
Greenwich
Roehampton
Middlesex
Coventry University, London Campus

Additionally, please let know if there is a better program in less that GBP 13K which I may have missed.


Regards,
Apoorva Arya

What are your goals? Why not take an MSc at a serious business school if your budget is limited?

Hi Duncan,

I have progressed fairly well in my career so far however to sustain the pace and move further up, I require an MBA and overseas work experience of around 3-5 years.

I looked into Msc programs as well however most of them seem to be pre-experience programs where average age is around 23 with less that 3 years of experience, so I am not sure if I would fit well into the cohort (age 30, with 10 years experience).

Second, because of my first degree in business studies and work experience, I dont meet entry requirements for Msc Management programs for most of the good programs in my budget (like Stratheclyde, Aston, Bath which are all under 15K)

And last, I am not sure how UK job market would perceive me after completion of the course - would they offer me Msc level jobs or would they take my experience into consideration?

I would be glad to hear your views.


Regards,
Apoorva Arya

You might not fit the experience profile of an MBA, but they fit your budget. There are very few accredited MBAs that fit your budget: the CEU in Budapest, CNAM in Paris and some schools in Turkey. Language skills means those are of limited value. So, the MScs are the best option.

I don't understand why you think you don't meet the entry requirements for most of the MSc programmes at the top business schools. That's just not the case. You cannot have read through most of them.

Yes, you would be offered MSc-level jobs, maybe slightly better than that. But an MSc-level job from one of the top schools will pay much more than an MBA from an unaccredited school.

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for your advise. I had gone through 'Masters in Management' program of most of the schools in FT rankings, and overshot the entry criteria as I already have a previous degree in business and more than 3 years of experience. I guess that is because MIM is a generic program so I would now start looking at specialized Msc programs.

As these programs dont have published rankings, I wanted to take you opinion on which ranking to follow as a general guide for Msc programs - overall university ranking like QS, Times Higher Education etc. or FT MBA ranking (which is guess would be more representative of the 'business school' but not the overall university).


Regards,
Apoorva Arya

Use http://www.best-masters.com/

Not all of the MiM programmes have a 3-year limit (in some countries, this would be illegal because of age discrimination).