Posted by - Smu - on 15 March 2016 - 9:33am

• Posted by - Smu - on 16 March 2016 - 8:56am

  Thank you very much for your response!

  I get your point. What do you think about a university without one of THE three accreditations at all? Would this be a reason to not attend a school? F.e. the Tilburg University "just" enjoys 2 national Dutch accreditations but no international ones.

  Also, would you rather recommend a 2 year (120 ECTS) Master over a 1 year (60 ECTS) Master if you have an idea what your career should look like afterwards but are not absolutely sure? In this case a 120 ECTS Master would keep more doors open, wouldn't it?

  Again, Thank you very much!

  Best regards

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  • Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 16 March 2016 - 10:23am

    Hi again,

    as I point out in detail in my eBook: International accreditations are no guarantee that the program is the right one for you - but they guarantee minimum standards. Hence, it makes sense to choose a school with AACSB, EQUIS or AMBA.

    Of course you can choose a school without such an accreditation - but then you (1) should have a good reason not to choose one of the hundreds of school with an international accreditation and (2) and watch out for other quality features. A Dutch accreditation may be such a feature but you should check the criteria of this accreditation certificate. Probably, the criteria are lower than those from AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA - but as long as you are fine with them, nothing speaks against it.

    • In my eBook I provide you with a lot of tips, particularly in the chapter "READ and TALK TO" on how you can find out about the quality of a school and program.

    As for your second question, it depends on what you want, even if you want to keep your career open and use the study time to find out what you want afterwards. Maybe you look at the curriculum and have the impression that makes sense to learn all of that - e.g., because you didn't study a business subject in your undergrads.
    Maybe a 2 year program offers practical study phases such as internships where you can meet your potential future employer. Maybe you want to go for a PhD afterward and need the 120 credits for that
    etc.

    • Again: Read my eBook as it gives you a lot of inspirations about what to do now, precisely in this phase that you are going through right now.

    Cheers
    Thomas

    Reply

• Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 15 March 2016 - 3:17pm

  Hi there,

  I give you my personal opinion. AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA are THE three internationally recognized accreditations. If you choose a school with one of them, you know that the school fulfills internationally accepted minimum standards in management education. But I wouldn't care if a school has two or three of them. This means I wouldn't use this as an criterion for my decision in favor or against a program (provided that a school holds one of these accreditations).

  The difference between a 60 ECTS and a 120 ECTS program is very simple: You learn more in the latter but you have higher costs during the program (opportunity costs and costs of living).

  Now that you have to choose between two options, I strongly recommend you to read my eBook "Business Masters: How you find the best Master in Management or MBA". This eBook directs your focus on the REAL criteria that you should apply when you choose a program - and the real criteria are whether a program provides you with the benefits that you need to fulfill your career goals.

  Example: Imagine your career goal is to find a job as an investment banker. It does not help you at all if a program lasts for 2 years and has 3 accreditations if this school has no connections with Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan etc. Understand the logic? Read my eBook and learn how to find out what really matters to becoem satisfied with your program.

  If you don't want to pay the 4.50 EUR for the eBook, just fill out my 3-minutes survey - then you get it for free.

  Best wishes
  Thomas

  By Thomas Graf
  Owner MIM Compass

  Reply