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Management graduate degrees: the key to your future?
It is less than ten years ago since the cause of some of the biggest scandals the world of international business has ever seen were placed firmly at the feet of business managers. The collapse of Enron and WorldCom and the legal action taken against companies as diverse as Adelphia and Arthur Andersen had an enormous impact on both the conduct of management and the way in which management is perceived as a career. How things have changed! Since the last of the major scandals in 2003, management as a career has become the central ambition of millions of students around the world, with international students seeking graduate study opportunities leading the way.
There can be no doubt that much of the near exponential growth of interest in studying management has been driven by the close relationship the subject enjoys with the world of work. International students in particular have seen that a graduate education in management is a passport to future success. Data released by the QS World Grad School Tour confirms student interest shows no sign of diminishing. In both 2006 and 2007, management topped the charts of subject interest among students attending the Tour, the only international graduate education fairs that bring top grad schools face-to-face with prospective masters and PhD students from all over the world.
Studying management at the masters level offers a number of opportunities for international students. Whilst the MBA qualification has dominated the minds of students in recent years, the less fashionable but nevertheless far more popular degree, Masters in Management, continues to attract students interested in the more analytical approach to the study of management.
Professor Peter Abell, one of the founders of the MSc in Management and Strategy at the London School of Economics, the top ranked UK program of its kind in 2007 according to the Financial Times, sees a clear distinction between MBA degrees and Masters in Management programs: The MBA seeks to build on a candidate's work and life experience. Education is drawn from the more practical point of view and, although many MBAs are academically rigorous these days, they tend to adopt a far more practical approach to the subject matter. Masters in Management take a more analytical and intellectual route to the field, developing the skills of participants to recognise the core issues, irrespective of the practical situation. Where there are similarities they tend to be in the use of case studies and review of real world situations.
Approaches to learning tend to include case studies, simulations, group presentations and relevant business games, in addition to the traditional lectures and seminars common to the masters level of study.
The study of management away from the MBA arena can take a variety of forms. The more general approach to management can be seen in the raft of programs on offer that seek to equip students with the general skills to cope with a varied range of management situations. Approaches to learning tend to include case studies, simulations, group presentations and relevant business games, in addition to the traditional lectures and seminars common to the masters level of study. The Masters in Management offered by Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium is one of the leading general management programs in Europe today and seeks to educate students for a variety of management scenarios by providing them with a practical approach based on solid analytical and academic theory. Ranked in the top 20 by the Financial Times and triple accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, masters students are attracted to the international atmosphere of the university and the opportunity to gain valuable work experience as part of the program.
Marie-Astrid Goes from Belgium graduated from the MSc Management program at Lancaster University in 2007. Like many students weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of selecting one management education program over another, Marie-Astrid selected a general route because she had not studied management before: I had graduated in Chemistry and Biochemistry and felt that a more general approach would be more useful.
