Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Strathclyde Business School has been delivering the Strathclyde MBA on an executive (part-time) basis via our international centres since 1988. We’ve successfully offered and developed the MBA in the UAE since 1995.

A pioneering and experienced MBA provider, we update and review our MBA to reflect the current business environment. Strathclyde’s MBA is strategy-focused and blends theoretical and practical business learning. Our MBA is flexible and responsive to the needs of working individuals. Our wide choice of electives can help you personalise the programme to suit your business interests. These elective classes can be studied in UAE, as well as in Glasgow or at our other international centres, to give you an international learning and networking experience.

The MBA project gives you an opportunity to examine in depth a managerial, organisational or environmental issue of your choice over an extended period of time.

Our Executive MBA allows you to study whilst continuing with your career and allows you to implement your learning into work.

Course content

The Strathclyde MBA is based on collaborative learning. You share work experience, knowledge, understanding and skills.

Our purpose is to help to develop you in diverse areas of management.

The MBA will shape and guide you as reflective, open-thinking, adaptive learners.

The MBA will shape and guide you as reflective, open-thinking, adaptive learners.

The Reflective Practitioner

This module is designed to help you respond to the increasing emphasis in the business world about corporate social responsibility, stakeholder expectations and the professional practice of management. It provides you with the foundations to become an adaptive manager open to life-long learning. There are three classes within this module:

• Learning Manager
• Comparitive Corporate Governance
• Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership

Making the Business Work

This module helps you understand the management fundamentals and processes vital to business success and that are operated by specialist functional teams in an organisation.

By becoming aware of these disciplines you’re more able to appreciate each function as well as the relationships and tensions between them.

The module has six classes:

• Finance and Financial Management
• Marketing Management
• Analytical Support for Decision Making
• Operations Management
• Managing People in Organisations
• Financial & Management Accounting

Strategic Management for Sustainable Success

This module is designed to help you integrate the classes in the 'Making the Business Work' module.

The classes are designed to help you explore, understand and confidently manage internal and external ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty. The Strathclyde MBA is renowned for its reputation in these aspects of management.

There are four classes in this module

• Exploring the International Environment
• Strategy Analysis and Evaluation
• Making Strategy
• Strategic Consulting in Practice - This provides you with an opportunity to work with a live organisational issue in conjunction with a client organisation. The client will feature significantly in the evaluation of the class. Designing the class in such a way provides you with many insights into the uncertainties of managing yourself, the task of strategising and meeting the expectations of the client.

Personal Development

As you progress through the Strathclyde MBA we work with you to help you personalise your learning and development. We do that through two routes – Elective Classes and the final MBA Project.

Learning & teaching

The Strathclyde International MBA is a face-to-face taught programme.

All classes are held on weekends and evenings at the Dubai campus and include:

• seminars on Fridays & Saturdays from 09:00 to 18:00 which are led by academics from the University of Strathclyde approximately once a month
• tutorial sessions of three hours, held once a week, either in the evening or on weekends. They are led by local counsellors who have been approved and appointed by Strathclyde.

The programme is structured over four semesters. There are two semesters a year and each semester is approximately five and a half months long.

October intake

If you start the programme in October, you’ll undertake the programme in this order:

Semester 1: October

• Marketing Management (E)
• Financial & Management Accounting (E)
• Finance & Financial Management (E)
• Exploring the International Business Environment
• Programme Seminar (Workshop)

Semester 2: April

• Operations Management (E)
• Analytical Support for Decision Making (E)
• Managing People in Organisations (E)
• Comparative Corporate Governance
• The Learning Manager (Workshop)

Semester 3: October

• Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership
• Strategy Analysis & Evaluation
• Making Strategy
• Strategic Consulting in Practice (Workshop)
• Project Methodology (Workshop)

Semester 4: April

• Elective subject 1
• Elective subject 2
• Project

Note: The (E) in the tables above means that the subject has an examination.

Entry requirements

Our selection process is designed to identify talented professionals from a wide range of academic, business and cultural backgrounds.

While there are formal requirements for entry listed below, we take into consideration:

• your potential
• your interpersonal and team working qualities
• the range and nature of your managerial experience

In order to assess these skills we ask you to complete a number of essays outlining your experience and aspirations alongside references supporting your work experience and academic record.

We may ask you to undertake a formal interview to discuss your achievements and aspirations. We also encourage you to visit the school or centre you’re applying to and to ask as many questions as you need.