Executive MBAs

Executive MBAs, or EMBAs, are programs designed for business professionals to gain a degree in business administration. The idea is to earn the qualification without any disruption to the day to day work of the person taking the course. EMBAs must be completed within two years, and most students are sponsored by their employers, so there is little, if any, monetary cost to the student, and the employing organisation will often allow the employee to have the necessary time off work in order to complete the course. The course curriculum for an executive MBA is much the same as for a standard MBA and will include modules such as finance, accounting, statistics, marketing, management and information and communication technology (ICT), with the added bonus of the business experience of the students. Because the participants already have a solid understanding of business, the course content is squeezed into a shorter time period than a standard MBA. To allow students to receive the full benefit of their colleague’s knowledge, a team approach is often used when teaching, to encourage interaction between students, who come from a huge variety of organisations from both the public and private sectors. Students are expected to put in around 15 to 20 hours of work each work, which can be a considerable extra load on top of a full time career. Therefore, executive MBAs are usually only recommended to highly motivated, committed individuals who will be able to cope with the work and benefit greatly. Currently, the top EMBA school is the London Business School, in the UK and US, followed by the London School of Economics, and City University. In the USA, New York University is one of the best. Although we have listed some of top schools, most major universities offer an EMBA course.