Masters in Business at Henley

[likelyhood]

My cousin is really struggling with a choice and hoping I can get some advice. She has offers for masters (MSc) in international business at Henley and an MBA at a tier 2/3 university. She likes the MBA degree but worried about turning down Henley, which is much higher ranked.

Does an actual MBA degree matter in the current job market? Any feedback on Henley Business School also welcome.

DH did his MBA through Henley 30 years ago. He was told by his boss that he had no choice (the company were paying). It was mostly distance learning with the odd week of having to be there.

TBH it didn't make any difference to him career-wise as he already had a PhD, and I'm not sure how much he got out of it except that he discovered that he needed glasses as he couldn't see the writing on the blackboard.

Usually MBAs require 3-5 years of good business/management experience. Does your cousin have this experience?

At US tech company where DS2 works, MBA (plus at least 3 years relevant management experience) allows you to apply for their fast track scheme. However you could reach the same level from the normal graduate scheme in the same time (taking into account the 3+ years prior experience, year to do MBA, 2 years on fast track scheme). Saying that most senior managers have MBAs so suspect having one gives you an edge.

@RampantIvy my own MBA was kind of like that, just a realisation of my inadequacies rather than any real learning 😀

@SandyIrvin she doesn’t have much experience. She could work for a few years and then do a proper mba (which was my advice) but she is keen to do a masters now for personal reasons. The US and Asia still seem to be hung up on MBA degrees so she thinks it’s easier to find a job outside the UK with an mba if the job situation here is bad when she graduates.

What does she like about the MBA compared to the masters? I would have thought if both pre-experience then they would be similar module wise. Is she thinking that overseas employers might mistake the MBA for a post experience MBA?

I might look instead at module content, student satisfaction and employment outcome versus costs. One of mine did a similar course and would say also to look at the mix of students. He found his course was mainly internationals more interested in working in the UK and the graduate visa once they had completed course rather than the course itself. It didn't make for great group work.