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Which way should I go?

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ajeetjose
Joined: 09 Jul 2012
Posts: 2
Which way should I go?
Tue Jul 10, 2012 01:23 PM
As a mid++ career person with £15K to shell out (over a period) and holding advanced eng degree, I have too wide options.
I have recived informal positive feedback from the admissions office of the following.

1. DBA/PhD - Strathclyde (6 years)
2. MPhil+PhD - Birkbeck/Queen Mary/Kingston (6 years)
3. MBA - few online/distance courses (3-4 years)

Objective
1. Pursue advanced business/managemnet study and enhance knowledge for its own sake
2. No career change needed anytime soon
3. Not too keen on salary boost or No ROI concerns
4. No change in location/country needed.
5. No hurry or pressure

What are your views? Long shot, I know…

Or Am I alice here :-(

"Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go."
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realist
Joined: 23 Jan 2012
Posts: 26
Which way should I go?
Tue Jul 10, 2012 01:47 PM
Are you interested in knowledge alone or knowledge + credentials?

Knowledge alone:
personalmba.com/best-business-books/

Knowledge + credentials:
My view is same as the cat :-) with a little inclination on U of L colleges.
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JK Duncan

Joined: 18 Apr 2011
Posts: 3603
Which way should I go?
Tue Jul 10, 2012 09:52 PM
Unless you want to work as a full-time academic, take an MBA. You'll have wider learning, more satisfaction, build a network and have more resulting options as a result. The Durham MBA is quite academic: take that.
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Sparks
Joined: 13 Jan 2012
Posts: 53
Which way should I go?
Wed Jul 11, 2012 08:05 AM
What's your preferred learning style? You'd have very different learning experiences in class vs. online/distance.

Online/distance MBAs will obviously have far less face-to-face time with your tutors and fellow students. This could be as little as 1 week per year or less.

Whereas I expect the UoL colleges will be mainly taught face-to-face. I might put Queen Mary at the top of the list. Firstly, the course will be taught in class. Secondly, Queen Mary has the quality stamps of both Russell Group membership and being a University of London college.

I would put Kingston lower on the list than Birkbeck and Strathclyde.

However, I agree with Duncan that an MBA would give you a much less specialised learning experience than an PhD. Are there any part-time MBAs you could add to the list?

[Edited by Sparks on 11 Jul 2012]
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ezra

Joined: 27 Jul 2011
Posts: 504
Which way should I go?
Wed Jul 11, 2012 08:11 AM

2. No career change needed anytime soon
3. Not too keen on salary boost or No ROI concerns

I'd advise not pursuing an MBA before you've fleshed out your career goals some more. It's noble to learn for learning's sake - but the real endpoint of an MBA is significant career advancement. Without a sense of where you want to end up, you may as well save the money and use your time to read books, watch TED talks, and go to conferences.

That said, which online programs are you looking at?
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JK Duncan

Joined: 18 Apr 2011
Posts: 3603
Which way should I go?
Wed Jul 11, 2012 01:22 PM
Good advice.

Kingston does have one advantage: the teaching is done at weekends.

Also look at the Doctorate in Professional Studies at King's College London. That is a top-50 university worldwide, with the UK's highest doctoral completion rate.
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ajeetjose
Joined: 09 Jul 2012
Posts: 2
Which way should I go?
Fri Jul 13, 2012 09:40 AM
Thanks for sharing your views.
The online MBA that I have in the list are Durham, Bradford and Aston. My study preference is flexible, independent and self directed. I don't mind group activities though but not an essential. I have done few distance mode courses and I am comfortable with it.

My long term goal is move into academia when money is not a big criteria - sort of retiring from the bizz world to pursue higher goals. I guess there is a good demand for people with 25+ years of industry consulting experience with DBA/PhD in Mgt/Bizz from well-known unis. I don't have concrete example to support this idea. Not sure if MBA would be sufficient for this.

Kingston seems good with weekend courses, does the ex-polytech image matter? They are not in any ranking as well but they are AMBA accredited. University of London could be more respectable in the academia? Basically I am looking for some sort of balance in industry and academia at my price range. Still open for MBA (rounded option), DBA (more structured/applied) or PhD (very specific and pure academic).



[Edited by ajeetjose on 13 Jul 2012]
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realist
Joined: 23 Jan 2012
Posts: 26
Which way should I go?
Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:40 AM
Very good discussion here, it will help you clear the fog ..

www.linkedin.com/answers/career-education/educatio…
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