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Today's MBA, with its focus on strategic thinking, analysis, and global markets, answers the call of business for relevance in management education. Increasingly, graduates throughout Europe with technical and liberal arts degrees or traditional professional qualifications are making the transition into general management. The MBA, with its focus on decision-making and analysis, is a natural stepping-stone for those who want to make this move and build on a first degree.

The global nature of modern business has sharpened the need for professionalism in management, and business schools offer MBA programmes that reflect this reality. Organizations and their staff are also aware that narrow professional qualifications or functional skills are not enough for success in a business environment. An MBA is helpful when there is a need to take an integrated - and increasingly global - view of how decisions in one discipline may affect others.

For most people, MBAs are about upward mobility. Some MBA graduates remain with their present employer, but others see the qualification as a passport to move between companies, business functions and industries. Studies have repeatedly found that the overwhelming majority of MBA graduates consider the development of broad managerial skills, as opposed to specific technical ones, to be the main benefit of the qualification. MBAs talk of a change in identity that comes in taking the degree, and about the confidence that comes from the intellectual rigour of looking at corporate problems at an advanced level.

There is now a strong demand from business for relevance, and emphasis is being placed on practice rather than theory; there is more integration between the separate business disciplines, together with a heavy accent on 'soft skills' such as teamwork and leadership. There is greater emphasis on group work, replicating what really happens in the commercial world, and on in-company projects in the form of consultancy assignments and internships. Many schools are now offering courses on presentation and communication skills, teaching the ethical aspects of management.

A 1997 salary survey from the Association of MBAs shows that MBAs are represented in a wide range of industry sectors. However, they are particularly concentrated in the consultancy sector and, to a lesser extent, in finance. Together, these two sectors account for more than 25% of respondents in the survey sample. Within industry, MBAs are concentrated in specific functions, the biggest (38%) being in general management, suggesting that the system of MBA education continues to be successful in equipping its graduates for an effective role in business management. A further 15% are employed in both corporate strategy and planning.

Business schools increasingly recognise that today's global companies requires managers with a broader outlook. They have therefore made great efforts to internationalise their MBA programmes - by attracting overseas students, employing faculty members with overseas experience, and forming effective links with business schools throughout Europe. Many schools, particularly on the Continent, offer bilingual MBAs. Strathclyde Graduate Business School and Groupe ESC Toulouse have introduced the European MBA, a one-year programme that is split between Glasgow and Toulouse. Cranfield University also offers a double MBA programme with Groupe ESC Lyon in France. These programmes have the added advantage of equipping managers with an understanding of cross-cultural issues, and an enhanced ability to communicate in a second language.

There are a number of ways in which to take an MBA, including full-time, part-time, modular and distance learning - the last of which is more common in the UK than elsewhere. Full-time programmes are usually a year in duration, while part-time programmes last on average two to three years, with classes taking place in the evenings, during weekends, or on day-release.

Distance learning is the fastest-growing mode of MBA study, with more than 10,000 students registered in the UK alone. As with part-time study, distance learning offers students the chance to integrate studies with employment. This provides a viable alternative for students who are unable to fit in part-time attendance, or who do not have access to a school of suitable standing, and takes an average of three to five years to complete.

Is it all worth it from a career point of view? The sounds of the backlash from an older and less go-ahead generation of managers are dying down, as they are gradually being replaced by a growing generation of MBAs. The most telling verdict on the value of the MBA comes from the 16 numbers of bright managers in both the private and public sectors, because if the future of business is as organizations promoting learning and knowledge - and it is impossible to envisage any other - then the MBA qualification must be the keystone of that structure.

There are now over 117 schools in the UK with at least an equal number in Continental Europe, and choosing a provider is not an easy task. The reputation of the institution from which the MBA is gained is crucial. Employers do not simply ask whether an applicant has an MBA - they also want to know where it was studied. A prospective student needs to consider a range of factors, including the size and culture of the School, programme content, quality of faculty and student body, facilities and location. The internationalism of a School, its administrative efficiency, success/failure rates and careers and placements services available should also be considered. This is where the Association of MBAs comes in.

The Association of MBAs was founded in 1967 by a group of British graduates who returned from studying at leading US business schools. Their initiative had two main objectives: firstly, a belief in the need for some kind of pressure group to promote the idea of management education at a time when it scarcely existed in the UK. The second objective was purely social: they wanted to extend to the members continuing social contact, informal networking and exchanges of information through periodic workshops and member's meetings. Membership of the Association has now exceeded 10,500, and includes senior executives and directors from some of the world's leading industries.

Currently, the Association has been joined by a third objective: that of quality control of MBA-awarding bodies through a system of accreditation. The Association currently accredits MBA programmes at fifty-four of the world's top business schools. In addition, requests for accreditation have recently been received from over twenty schools covering the UK, Scandinavia, mainland Europe, Australia and South America. The accreditation process is rigorous, providing 'consumer protection' for intending students. The Association takes the view that the accreditation process provides quality assurance, but then it is up to the individual to pursue their own investigations into the institutions they are interested in.

One of the Association's major roles is to act as a clearing house for enquiries from intending MBAs. In addition to postal enquiries and visits to the web site, the Association's telephone information service fields over 5,000 course enquiries every month.

The most valuable service of the Association is its Business School Loan Scheme. Between 1986 and 1990 the Association endorsed loans for MBA students totalling £6.25 million. Since 1990 they have endorsed loans in excess of £150 million. Full written details of the Scheme, together with an application form, can be obtained from The Association of MBAs.

Author

Robert Owen

Manager, Accreditation Services

Association of MBAs