Faqs

The Master's of Business Administration is a practical toolkit for advancing through the workforce. With an MBA, you can pursue promotions, business prospects, or management positions that were beyond your reach before. These new opportunities come with boosted salaries, enhanced job security, and the potential to advance to even higher management or executive positions. In fact, many global universities estimate that 70% of their graduates currently serve as Senior Managers or Board Directors within their respective corporations.

MBAs are often referred to as “professional” degrees, because of their approach to holistically developing outstanding business managers and executives. However, colleges and universities also cater to the interests and ambitions of individual students by offering specialised degree tracks. MBA concentrations may be either skills-based or career-based. A skills-based concentration helps students to develop a specific, adaptable specialty such as project management or strategic planning, while a career-based concentration will prepare them to enter a particular field, such as IT, medical, or sports management.

“If you are at a point in your career where you are re-evaluating possible future paths, an MBA is a valuable tool which can give you the credentials to make a lateral move without taking a step back in your career. For example; we have had engineers join the programme looking to enter marketing, pharmacists looking to enter management within large Multinational Pharmaceuticals…it can be done! You just need the experience and the tools. In fact, this is almost expected; many people make career-path changes post-MBA.” – Aine McManus, Head of Griffith College Graduate Business School

The Master in Business Administration (or MBA) degree is for professionals who have a few years of managerial work experience. This creates a rich learning environment as students come from a range of industries and bring their different experiences into the course. The MBA course curriculum develops foundational business operation skills such as finance, marketing, and management at the graduate level. MBAs are among the most sought after postgraduate degrees across Europe and North America due to their versatility and opportunities for career advancement. Full-time MBA programmes typically last 1-2 years, while part-time courses may take longer to complete. The MBA is the gold standard in professional business education.

The Master's of Science (M.Sc) consists of specialised training in a specific discipline. To pursue an M.Sc in the business field, an applicant is required to have an undergraduate degree in a business discipline as the M.Sc is more advanced and specialised. An M.Sc is ideal for a student who does not have a lot of work experience in the industry as it is a combination of theory and industry practice. The Griffith College Graduate Business School offers a wide range of M.Sc programmes, including Global Brand Management, Procurement & Supply Chain Management and Accounting & Finance, to name a few. These degrees are capped off with a research project in the form of a dissertation, which contributes original research to the subject. This dissertation differentiates an M.Sc from a Postgraduate Diploma.

The Graduate Business Competency Report involves applicants to reflect on and discuss their development as a manager thus far in their career. 

Please see here for more information.

The MBA requires students to have a minimum of three years of managerial experience before applying. Having this managerial background improves the learning experience for all students on the MBA as you will be able to provide insider knowledge, insights and anecdotes with which you can contribute to class discussions.

The following documents are required for MBA applicants:

• A letter of application outlining your suitability as a candidate
• A brief outline of your current, most recent role
• An up-to-date CV including current and past positions and education
• A short profile of your current/past organisation and the sector in which it operates.
• The Competency Report

You may be able to apply through Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, or APEL.

APEL takes into account the experiential learning which is learning achieved through work experience. Typically, the Graduate Business faculty requires APEL applicants to have a minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in the related discipline in which they are applying, for example, this candidate has been working ten years as an accountant and now is applying for the M.Sc in Accounting and Finance. 

The Graduate Business faculty will require you to submit a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate your suitability for admission to the programmes by completing an APEL form. Please see here for more information. The details submitted in this form, and accompanying documents, should demonstrate how your work experience to date has enabled you to join this Master's programme.

The typical requirements for entry into the Graduate Business School can be viewed here.

We offer one fully online MBA in partnership with Edinburgh Business School, at Heriot-Watt University.

Complete fee information can be found on each course's respective course page, under the "Fees" tab.

Most of our courses are offered on both a full-time and part-time basis. Please see our full course listing for the most up-to-date information.