Unaccredited specialised MBA?

[imustbeoutofmymind]

Has anyone done one of these?

I'm looking to change career into a new-ish field and would like to do an MBA, as I've already got an MA in something else.

The one I'm looking at is unique in the UK but it's not accredited by the AMBA. I live abroad, where it probably doesn't matter as much (they haven't heard of my previous unis either but I've survived). The cost is £11k.

Alternatively I could go back to the uni where I did my undergrad, which is the top 5 for UK business schools. They offer a general online MBA at just over £20k but I'd get a 10% discount.

I fancy the sound of the specialised course though. It has the title of MBA my dream career. I don't know how badly I want to be a high flying businesswoman so the general MBA probably isn't worth it but I'm a snob I don't want to lose money paying for a course that isn't properly recognised by the industry.

Any thoughts? TIA!

Can you contact anyone in the field you want to go into to see if they can offer advice? Would the specialist MBA open doors into jobs that your current skills / degrees / experience won't? If you do the specialist MBA will it still give you sufficient general business admin skills you could use in your current career?

I did my MBA through the Open University which allowed for tailoring to my career preferences. I have worked as an academic for a number of years in the Higher Education sector and also with distance learning providers. I personally would be wary of an unaccredited course - if the provider is confident in the quality why wouldn't they. you are investing a lot of money so will want to be sure that what is offered up front is going to be fully delivered to a high quality. best of luck with your next step - the MBA is a great qualification.

Thanks for the replies. I've been trying to find alumni to talk to but no luck yet. Will try to talk to someone who's already in the industry too, though I don't have any contacts yet.

I'm not sure I need a full MBA or that an MBA qualification carries much weight in this particular field. Two people I've asked have never heard of it. So I could probably do just as well with a PGDip that's 10 times cheaper from another institute. They'll never have heard of either college over here anyway.

I'm also starting to wonder if I can even manage the 20 hours a week that they recommend for the online MBA. I'm a SAHM to a 17 month old Duracell bunny and more often that not, I'm exhausted.

The MBA is minimum 18 months, the PGDip is 12 months (less if you put the time in - only about 8-10 hours a week!). My savings run out in 12 months' time so I suppose the PGDip is looking like a better option.

Totally confused now!!!

Everyone I know who has done an MBA has done work based assignments. Is this part of the course you are looking at? If it is, can you fulfil this from home? Also I would not touch unaccredited. The price difference tells you all you need to know!