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The Masters in Business Administration is the premier, and most popular, business qualification. In the USA around 90,000 students graduate with an MBA each year. Studying In America investigates the key skills acquired and uncovers why so many people take on the MBA commitment.

Generalist skills

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People at the beginning of their careers, irrespective of industry sector, tend to specialise. Most will concentrate on their particular role, such as sales or marketing. Some focus on gaining a professional qualification, such as Chartered Engineer or Accountant. If successful they can rapidly develop to become respected professionals in one area of expertise. These areas are, however, typically of a specialist nature and a career move to a new organisation may not offer enormous career development opportunities or increased responsibilities.

The MBA is essentially a generalist qualification designed to widen the student's horizon in order to take account of all the major functions of a business as well as their interactions in practice. Because its focus is general rather than specialist, the MBA is targeted at those who can make a contribution to strategy. They may have general management ambitions, but not necessarily. They may also be senior specialists who need a rounded view of an enterprise in order to maximise their particular contribution, and for who better performance in a current job may be as important as early ambitions for promotion. MBAs come from almost every conceivable background in terms of first degree, functional role, industry and enterprise including charities, government bodies, health, education and other not for profit organisations.

The Student Perspective

Unlike other masters degrees the MBA is both a graduate and post-experience qualification. It is not appropriate for the recent graduate who would be better advised to either defer MBA study until a later date, or undertake a specialist master's degree.

The MBA aims to build on the foundations of work experience and by providing new skills and knowledge, to enable the student to make the transition to a higher level of responsibility. MBA students typically will have made significant career progression for a number of years after their first degree. In many cases they will have gained a professional qualification and/or a specialist masters degree. They should have an in-depth knowledge of either a function or role and a specific industry sector. But they will typically have limited prospects of further career progression as they are, essentially, specialists, i.e. 'the accountant', the HRM manager, etc.

The degree and value of professional expertise and knowledge to be found among the students on a typical MBA programme cannot be underestimated and the quality of the student body is an excellent indicator of the quality of the MBA programme itself. Students often report that half of what they have learnt has come from their well-qualified fellow students who are able to bring their experience of industry to bear in classroom and assignment situations. Fellow students will also become a career-long, invaluable networking asset. Employers and students alike should be wary of schools, which accept significant numbers of recent graduates as the entire learning experience on such a programme is seriously compromised.

In some industries the MBA is now not so much a desirable attribute, but an essential qualification. Most notably this is the case in consulting and finance. To progress in these industries, not having an MBA is a huge disadvantage. In many companies it is not only a required qualification but they also have a limited list of schools from which they will recruit. Surveys find that increasing numbers of finance directors are MBAs.

No sector now is exempt from the influence of the MBA. Over the last decade the MBA has firmly established itself in the non for profit sector: health, charities, local government, the civil service, education, law and even church management. The latest trend appears to be the popularity of so-called 'dot-coms' and entrepreneurship. A disproportionate number of these areas are the brainchild of an MBA. In some cases, the have been ex-students who have dropped-out to launch a successful project whilst at business school.

AACSB International

With an estimated 9,000 business schools worldwide, the choices for a business education have never been greater. Among all these providers, accreditation by AACSB International distinguishes the truly high quality institutions.

Earning AACSB accreditation is a demanding process that requires a three-to-seven year commitment to become internationally accredited, followed by a continuous commitment to improvement. In short AACSB Accreditation is a detailed rigorous peer review evaluation of a business school that focuses on mission achievement, attracting quality faculty and students and assessment of student learning outcomes to assure quality.

More and more companies are taking a discriminating look at business schools where they do their recruiting. When they seek out the best employees, they look at the best business schools. Graduates from AACSB-accredited institutions return full value to the companies that hire them because, beyond preparing students to make immediate contributions to the employer, they prepare students for the future, ensuring ongoing value to their organization and their communities.

More Information

The standards used in AACSB reviews can be found at www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/standards.asp.

A list of all the schools that have achieved AACSB accreditation can be found at www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/AccreditedMembers.asp