Hi everybody!

My name is Cristobal, from Chile.

The thing is I got married and I will apply to start a MBA next year, and so far, after crossing all the variables (tuition fee, cost of living, life quality, accreditations, etc.), the result is Newcastle University (£27k), for which I would like to ask you if you can share with me your thoughts about the MBA and the University.

My goal is not to find a job in UK, but to have the best experience possible, balancing the MBA and live one year abroad (with all that means for a young married couple). I love UK, been there many times, so thats why I'm focusing only to study there and not Spain, France, Netherlands or any other place..

Considering the above, I have the doubt whether to keep my decision with Newcastle, or if it is worth the additional financial effort and apply to any of the following MBA with higher tuition fee: Nottingham (£28k), Liverpool (£31k), Birmingham (£32k), or any other with tuition fees between £25k-£32k.

I hope you can give me a hand on this, I would be very greatful!

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Cristóbal

What are your career goals? If you just want to come and study in the UK, then you could take a cheaper course which might be less intensive and give you more time to explore the island. On an MBA in the UK you will be surrounded by foreigners, basically the same people as in any MBA in Europe. Ok, you will be physically in the UK but studying so intensely you might not get many of the benefits.

Personally, I would give this choice to your wife. Without clearer career goals there is no real difference between these schools. All of them are good, and Birmingham is certainly the better MBA. However, which of these cities will be best for your wife? Birmingham is much more central, and warmer than Newcastle. She might prefer Bath or York,  beautiful tourist traps? Maybe Manchester, Glasgow or Leeds, big cities with a huge cultural scene? Less famous MBAs like Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester Met, Oxford Brookes, Strathclyde might be a good compromise if the setting is better for your wife. For cost and quality of life, I would not go south-east of Oxford. 

What are your career goals? If you just want to come and study in the UK, then you could take a cheaper course which might be less intensive and give you more time to explore the island. On an MBA in the UK you will be surrounded by foreigners, basically the same people as in any MBA in Europe. Ok, you will be physically in the UK but studying so intensely you might not get many of the benefits.

Personally, I would give this choice to your wife. Without clearer career goals there is no real difference between these schools. All of them are good, and Birmingham is certainly the better MBA. However, which of these cities will be best for your wife? Birmingham is much more central, and warmer than Newcastle. She might prefer Bath or York,  beautiful tourist traps? Maybe Manchester, Glasgow or Leeds, big cities with a huge cultural scene? Less famous MBAs like Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester Met, Oxford Brookes, Strathclyde might be a good compromise if the setting is better for your wife. For cost and quality of life, I would not go south-east of Oxford. 

My view would be Birmingham or Newcastle > Liverpool but that is tainted by having lived in Birmingham and studied at Newcastle. Both are much stronger than Liverpool's school of management. However, neither of these MBAs has a very strong finance element. 
If you have not already qualified as a CFA, and you want to focus on investment management, I would also suggest you look at CFA partner programme degrees in that. The Birmingham MBA views finance very much through the lens of founding and internationalizing a business in the developing world. In contrast, a CFA-approved MSc would take you much deeeper:
Birmingham https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/taught/business/investments-msc.aspx
Henley
https://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/study/masters/masters-in-investment-management#fees-funding
Aston
https://www.aston.ac.uk/study/courses/investment-analysis-msc
Exeter
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/finance/fafm 

Of the several MBA degrees in that range, Durham offers very good scholarship, negotiate hard I know people who get 50% discount and have 630 GMAT (and GPA of 3.8) and worked in Banks for 2 or 3 years.

Newcastle should also offer good scholarship and they are seen as lesser and need to attract good candidates.

Edinburgh or Henley also has some good discount.