An MBA Checklist

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Choosing the right MBA programme has many similarities to finding the right employees. The most common mistake when recruiting employees is that you haven’t defined your needs and desires, or perhaps they have been defined but they play no further role in selection of the candidate. In short, mistakes are made in the decision-making process.

To help you in your selection of an MBA you can use the following checklist, which is based on the part time MBA, as that is the most common MBA in Europe.

• What are your motives to do an MBA? Are you interested in knowledge or skills, or a good mix of both? Do you wish to broaden your knowledge and skills, or do you wish to deepen them? Improve your career, work more smoothly or easily? Do you want to continue working in your sector/discipline? Ask yourself what areas you want to develop in the near future. And who do you want as your fellow students? (Age, experience, job description, sector, mixed or not mixed?) Make a list before you start with all the needs and desires that you have regarding an MBA.

• Is there a shorter (management) training that meets all your needs and desires? If there is, take it instead of an MBA. It will save you time, money and frustration.

• Do you have enough time available over the next two years– 10 – 15 hours a week to study a part time MBA? (Consider yourself, your partner, work, family, hobbies) If the answer is yes, continue. If not, first take the time to organise your affairs so that you can eventually start an MBA.

• Can you fund an MBA, with or without the help of your employer? (Typically distance learning MBA’s start at €10,000, many part time MBA’s cost between €20,000 and €45,000). Some institutes offer the possibility of spreading the payments over several years, and some tax systems stimulate education by accepting the costs as a tax deduction. Altogether it is financially possible for most managers to start an MBA.

• Make a rough list of potential schools and MBA programmes they offer. If after the first four points you are still interested, you now have to decide which programme the best is for you from the list of schools. Points 1 through 4 are already a good basis for a first selection. There are plenty of guides and internet sites to find potential schools.

• You now have a rough selection based on your motives (needs and desires) and financial limitations. The next criteria should be the quality of the school. In the Netherlands and Belgium accreditation is given through the NVAO (Dutch Flemish Accrediation Organisation). For international programmes accreditation from AMBA, AACSB or EQUIS gives a good indication of the high quality of the institutes and the programmes they offer as a whole. All four of the above mentioned accreditation organisations have internet sites, and you can generally assume that when an institute or programme claims to be accredited by 1 of the 4 it actually is.

• For programmes outside the Benelux: accreditation by the national accreditation organisation (such as the NVAO for the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium) and/or by the AMBA, AACSB or EQUIS says enough about the general quality and quality safety’s.

• In support of this you can look at rankings, which are basically customer satisfaction research. For the Netherlands/Belgium you can use the biannual Intermediair study by the Kohnstamm Institute. This ranking is found on the internet site of Intermediair. For international rankings www.mba.startpagina.nl is a good overview. By comparing the institutes in your top 3 or 5 list on the aspects you find important, you could possibly further sharpen your choice.

• Visit the open days or informational meetings offered by your top choice of institutes and make a definite choice based upon your impressions during these visits and one-to-one discussions (so-called intake-discussions).

• IMPORTANT: Don’t choose too quickly on the basis of banal criteria such as: close to home, few contact hours, cheap, a friend of mine is happy with it, image of the institute is good. Only use these criteria at the last minute, especially if you find it difficult to decide between your top choices.

For further details
Business School Netherlands