Entry is terribly competitive, hard work is a given and you generally pay through the nose for the privilege of doing one. Why then, is a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) such a desirable qualification?

“I get asked that all the time,” says Dr John Loonam, who lectures in management at Dublin City University (DCU). “An MBA is geared to facilitate people who have a strong record of experience, to make a transition into management. It develops strong leadership capabilities because it is preparing people to take on leadership roles.”

In the MBA world, there are generally two types of qualification. A full-time MBA tends to have a younger cohort with perhaps less experience than the intake of a part-time executive MBA. For the executive MBA, your experience is a key part of what you bring to the programme.

Participants study part-time and continue working for their companies, applying what they learn in their day-to-day working lives. They tend to be at or very close to management level already.

Executive MBA programmes are certainly seen as a stepping stone to leadership roles. Because participants are working in companies while studying, they often apply what they are learning to their own professional environments.

Dr Alma McCarthy, executive MBA director in NUI Galway believes this is a huge strength of the course she heads up and cites real life learning and practise as a key feature. “Students work with companies in various industries to shape and guide their strategy through real-life consulting projects,” she says. “Many of our MBA students, who already work in management roles, see the MBA as the stepping stone to promotion and career advancement, and we do everything we can to facilitate that.”

An MBA is seen by many prospective candidates as a canny investment. Fees can vary widely. The Smurfit School MBA and executive MBA are listed at an eye-watering €29,500 each, while an MBA in Dublin Business School is €7,900 a year full-time or €4,950 per annum part-time. While employer-funding of MBAs suffered somewhat during the downturn, more and more students are coming with financial backing from their employers again, according to Loonam.

Salaries increase

The benefits for both career and salary are evident. Recent figures show graduates of the full-time MBA programme in the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School had seen their salaries increase by an average of 63 per cent three years after finishing the course.

Likewise, graduates of the executive MBA programme (who would have been working while studying for their qualification) saw an average rise of 53 per cent. Many business schools collate these statistics while others can relate huge amounts of anecdotal evidence of MBA graduates winning promotions and increasing their salaries.

So how do you choose your MBA? Accreditation is a good indicator of a certain standard. When a business school is accredited by the London-based Association of MBAs, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business based in the US and the European Quality Improvement System, it means it has achieved a status known as triple accreditation.

Just 68 business schools worldwide are triple accredited. Both the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and the Open University are among them. However, a lack of accreditation from the associations above does not necessarily mean that they are not of a particular standard. All MBAs are different and it is up to the candidate to find which one will best suit their needs.

Suit their schedule

While cost and accreditation are important, a lot will come down to practicalities, according to Loonam. For those studying the executive MBA, they need a programme that will suit their schedule and location.

Proximity to a college campus isn’t necessarily a requirement for an MBA. Interestingly, the largest MBA provider in Europe is actually online. The triple accredited Open University business school has been running an MBA programme for more than 20 years.

It seems strange to have an online MBA when many cite the class group experience as the single most valuable aspect of the MBA. But the Open University argues that because a course is online does not mean participants don’t have class groups and opportunities to interact and network. In truth the Open University MBA is a blended programme with residential events throughout the course where students come together.

The online aspect allows a great deal of interaction even if not all of it is face-to-face. Devendra Kodwani, master’s programme director at the Open University, argues the quality of interaction can be better online than in a traditional classroom. “Our interaction is far more intensive and sustained,” he says. “You can retain conversations online. In addition, you don’t have to respond immediately in an online environment. You can consider your response first. We find interaction between students extends far beyond the classroom.”

“The executive MBA is a very applied master’s and companies see nothing less than a transformation in the individual. This is what leads to promotion and this is what makes the hard work worthwhile,” Loonam says.

The value of the other people in the class on an MBA programme comes up again and again. “Our students this year have an average of 12 years of workplace experience,” says McCarthy. “They come from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds – engineers, physiotherapists, marketing people, you name it – and they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the programme. ”