Anyone searching for an MBA programme in the UAE today faces a bewildering and complex choice – there are currently over 45 MBA/MSc programmes available in the market. The decision to take an MBA represents a major commitment, both in terms of time and money. Deciding which programme to select is confusing because you are quickly swamped with a deluge of information, unfortunately not all of which is reliable, and some is misleading.

How then, do you navigate through this information maze to select an MBA programme?
One way is to undertake a comprehensive research of all programmes and institutions offering the programmes – surf websites, study course brochures, read MBA guides, examine the institution’s rankings and accreditations, review advertisements, and talk to representatives from the institutions at education exhibitions.

This process is time-consuming and much of the information gathered will be of limited value. For example, information from websites are usually not detailed enough and often out of date. The same applies to MBA guides and advertisements invariably slanting information, which can be deliberately ambiguous and deceptive. Moreover, some MBA brochures are nothing more than elaborate advertisements. Education exhibitions, meanwhile, are busy affairs making it difficult to have any more than a superficial conversation with representatives from institutions about their courses.

Then there are the ‘rankings’. Increasingly, newspapers and magazines conduct annual ranking exercises and produce league tables for Business Schools and MBA programmes, which ranks full-time programmes only. There are however, a number of problems associated with any rankings. The first is that the rankings use different yardsticks and weightings to measure, and while these yardsticks are often explicitly stated, most students do not take the time to read them. For example, the FT Global Rankings is 40% weighted towards post MBA programme salary and salary increase; this favors Business Schools which take on younger students many straight from graduation, as their percentage increase in salary pre and post MBA tends to be significantly higher than that of more mature, mid-career students. Secondly, these league tables assume that the needs of all students are the same. In reality, the selection of a University, business school, or MBA course is always a complex and highly individual decision. Thirdly, these league tables are almost always based on the institution’s domestic operations and fail to measure the quality and content of offshore and executive programmes offered by the institution.

Therefore, much of the information gathered from these ‘traditional’ sources is really only useful as a first step in determining which programme to enrol in. How then does one decide on which MBA course offered by which institution? The answer is to first determine what it is that you want from an MBA. For example, if all you want is the initials ‘MBA’ after your name and are not especially concerned with the quality and reputation of the programme, or what you will learn from it, then you need information on the quickest, easiest, and cheapest programme available. For those who want more than that, more investigation is required.

A primary source of information which is consistently rated as the most useful is ‘word of mouth’ testimonials from current students and alumni of programmes. Talking to these individuals is ‘a must’, as they have direct experience of the institution and its programme and will be able to give you personal insights, which you will not get from traditional media sources. They will also invariably give you ‘straight’ answers. Visiting the institution and reviewing its facilities, programme materials, and talking to representatives from the institution (preferably academics who have in-depth knowledge of the structure of the MBA programme and what it covers), is an equally important source of reliable information.

Finally, the ‘reputation’ aspect should not be ignored – this is a little more difficult and you should be looking for two things:

Is the reputation founded on reliable and objective measurement?
The most significant of which are accreditations by the three primary international accrediting bodies – AMBA (Association of MBAs), EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), and AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). These should be regarded as a filter, so that you can concentrate on choosing from among accredited schools. For an MBA, AMBA accreditation is crucial for being assured of reasonable standards. At the national level, accreditation by the Commission for Academic Accreditation of the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is an important qualification. These accreditations evaluate a Business School’s mission and strategy, faculty qualifications, curriculum, teaching and assessment, student management, standards of the graduates, resources, and the institution’s quality management and assurance process. All of the above accreditation processes are rigorous and comprehensive. They demand the highest standard of achievement in postgraduate business education and endow business schools with international credibility. In short, they provide students with a level of confidence that the business school is providing top-quality education against international benchmarks.

Is the reputation founded on the history of the institution’s MBA programmes?
For example, is the MBA programme a relatively new one, or is it a well-established programme which evolved through long experience, and has stood the test of time? The last several years have seen an explosion of MBA programmes in the market. On the surface, many of these appear quite reasonable but a closer examination reveals that the programmes are poorly structured, suffer a lack of integration, and often fail to include what are generally regarded as basic MBA courses in their programme structure.

Offering MBAs has become a lucrative industry, and new entrants will continue to enter the market with programmes which unfortunately often compete not on the basis of quality, reputation and integrity, but on price using ‘carpet bombing’ advertising techniques. Thus, in choosing which MBA programme to enrol in, you need to be savvy and check the programmes and institutions carefully before you make what will probably be one of the largest investment decisions of your life.