Anyone with experience of MBA study

[northender]

Dh is a management accountant which was hard enough a qualification to get when we had very young children! That was 7 years ago and now he has the chance to apply for an MBA course fully funded by work. There is only one place open to any qualified accountant from his government dept so a good chance he wouldn't get it anyway, but I'm wondering how hard is it and how much of a commitment. I know things like this are very subjective but I don't know anyone who's studied for this so am trying to gauge whether it's feasible for dh and the impact on the family etc.

I think it depends a lot on the school he goes to. My DH is just finishing one at a london university and it feels like it's been a monster year and I've hardly seen him. But I know someone who's been at Oxford and has had time to play rugby, socialise, go on overseas trips... Do you know which uni your DH would go to? Best to contact one of their alumni directly to find out.

Yes, the intensity of the course will depend on which university your DH will go to. In general, MBA is a fairly intense period of two years, that takes up a lot of time in the day and even in the evenings. There are many projects in addition to the exams etc that he will have to study for. Obviously, he will be fine with Accounting, but does he know anything about marketing, macroeconomy etc? If not, he will have to study hard.

It might be well worth it for his career prospects, though.

Thanks for your posts they're really helpful. He's found out today that the course in question is London based and one day a week in college which is not manageable in terms of travel etc. so he won't apply for this one. However it has set him thinking and he may try to get funding through his workplace and do it closer to home. The one advertised was through BPP in London but they run one locally he thinks.

I imagine he's doing it part time?

It'll involve possibly block teaching (m-f 9-5) or weekend teaching (f-s over 2 weekends per module) or a variation of that. Roughly about 4/5 modules per year and at least half will be examinable (traditional unseen types).

Will involve 'networking events' and talks that will take place evenings or weekends. And then weekends are spent doing the assignments.

It's tough especially if there's a family to tend to (kids or elderly relatives). I've had some 'students' whose families have broken up (not really as a result of the MBA). It does take its toll. Good luck in choosing the right programme.

It can be tough - I started one many years ago at the the London Business School but had to give up when got pregnantand needed every penny. Have had work colleagues who did their MBA through the OU and found it much more manageable - they could take breaks from it and do it over a longer period of time and only had to commit to a summer school - the rest of the work is managed from home - they all felt it had been a good experience but perhaps had not furthered their career as much as hoped. The family cost depends on what your DH wants to use the qualification for and how prestigious the uni needs to be to further his career aims.

All your comments have been really helpful, thank you. We talked things over last night and I think he needs to decide first what he wants to do longer term with his career and whether an MBA would be worth the effort/sacrifice. I think we're erring towards it not being worth it. Studying for CIMA was really intrusive and took a long time but turned his career around at the time. To go through something similar again does not appeal to me or dh at the moment.

my feeling on these things is that an MBA done in the best places (e.g LBS) is worthwhile but for the others i would only do it if you are interested in the course content for its own sake. and if you are interested in the ideas of business, strategy etc then an academic masters may be cheaper and easier to manage.

There will probably be open evenings where they can chat with current MBA students or the director of the MBA to have a feel of the place and the course. It'll be free so maybe you can pop down to the one nearest you (or takes your fancy) and see whether it is something for you. It's not necessary that everything is London-centric (unless you are London based!) and there are very good schools across the country. You may also want to see their affiliations (whether they've been accredited by EQUIS, AMBA etc) and what sort of calibre their teaching staff are. It's great having a management guru on the books but if they aren't going to be his teacher/mentor/project supervisor then it's pretty pointless. Not everyone gets to study physics with Stephen Hawking!