Online MBA Forum

Monday, August 07, 2006

Junior MBA?

I've noticed a new trend in recent years, that of institutions creating a Bacehlor's degree in Business Administration. Usually these institutions run an MBA, and this programme becomes a feeder into the Master's degree.

I'm not entirely sure whether I think these are a good idea. The first thought that comes to me is that MBAs are for people who might not have previous qualifications. This is the point of using GMATs as a guide to good potential students, plus the concentration on previous career achievements.

The second thought is that by creating a Bachelor's degree, it assumes that students will not have previous experience. They will be learning theory only, without the ability to "place" the theory into the framework of their own working lives. This makes professional education of this kind a very different kettle of fish than that orginally envisaged by the institutions that designed MBAs.

# posted by Mary @ 7:32 PM

Comments:

I’d say I’m a lot more sanguine about these BBAs. Yes, I agree, an MBA has always been seen as a way to provide an already proven manager with the tools to go further in their career: more like Staff College in the Army (you can’t go until you’re already a Major) than something done immediately after a Bachelor’s. So I take the point about an MBA being different, aimed at a different audience.
However, there have always been college programs similar to these BBAs. I did an Economics degree with finance and accountancy as the major subjects. Business degrees, accounting, they’ve been around for quite some time, they might just be getting renamed as BBAs.
One thing that would worry me though: if people were being fed straight into the MBA from them. These traditional MBAs don’t really work until you’ve actually been in the corporate environment for a couple of years and understand what they are trying to teach you.

# posted by failingeconomist : 6:51 AM

Online MBA Forum

Monday, August 07, 2006

Junior MBA?

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