Hi there

It has been my pleasure!

Well it depends on what kind of knowledge you would like to acquire for now. Do you want to do something related to your field or do you want to learn something else. There are few short courses around that you can find, depending on which area interests you.

If you don't want to spend much on learning, you may also check the online courses available on this website:
https://www.futurelearn.com

They provide various courses in different fields and the courses are conducted by different UK universities (mostly), including University of Strathclyde.

When I was in your situation before, I spent some time thinking on what is it that I am passionate about. And I found it - i love to bake! lol.. So I started a small home baking business and took some short courses on cake decorating

Cheers!

Edahani
Strathclyde MBA Malaysia

I finally joined the Lancaster University MBA program.
As mentioned by 1 of the forumer, yes this is indeed NOT an Executive MBA.
Though it doesn't really matter to me whether it is a normal traditional MBA or Executive MBA, I still believe the value of having an MBA education.

So anyway, the classes timetable is quite convenient for those with full time job. The schedule is usually 7-10pm weekday and 9-6pm weekend. Facilities is OK. You get to use Sunway & Monash library and facilities. Food are provided (Breakfast, Lunch, Tea-breaks, Dinner). Classes are mostly held in the Graduate Center building.

This batch quite a lot people (over 30+) and a lot from the medical line (doctor or pharmacist) and some from IT and Sales. I guess most are non-management/economy/finance background.

My class will start weeks from now, very anxious to meet my future coursemates

Hi Rinex,

I'm with the current new intake. Classes not starting tomorrow?

Oops ya.
time flies...

See you then!

would it be useful to start a new thread to discuss only about our program in lancaster? so that other fellow coursemates can discuss there

Don't think there's much lowyat.net peeps in the course. I guess we can discuss tomorrow

Its the correct decision to postpone your ambitions to do a MBA now. What Edahani said is 100% correct. But I need to point out to you that its not just 'working experience' which counts. Its gotta be the right working experience preferably in managerial positions in order to benefit and contribute to the MBA course.

As ive mentioned previously, before doing a MBA you need to first ask yourself why do you want to do an MBA and what do you hope to achieve / get out of the MBA. Don't just do a MBA just because everybody else is doing it. Most ppl with MBA's here in Malaysia have not benefitted from it at all (except for personal development) simply because they didn't have a career strategy in the first place. If your career path doesn't require you to do an MBA then don't do it. A MBA is not an automatic pass to career progression. Its got to be in line with your career path / strategy. The organisation you work for needs to support and recognise the importance in the MBA course for your own career which is why most MBA's require a sign off from the company. Don’t just do a MBA for the sake of getting a piece of paper. The working world doesn’t just recognise a piece of paper (unless it’s from one of those top business schools). The recognition from the working world has to go hand in hand with you as an individual.

Also keep in mind that MBA's are usually for those between 25-30 with about 8 yrs experience. Beyond that, an MBA may not be suitable as the modules are catered for those seeking to move horizontally e.g changing industries, career paths, etc. For those with more than 10 yrs experience, going down the path of an Executive MBA is more suited as it gears you to move up the ladder into senior management roles.

The biggest draw for any MBA program is actually the alumni network. In fact, if you speak to any of the alumni from the top business schools, ull see that they will rank alumni networking as their No 1 take away from the program.

Personally in Malaysia, i have yet to come across any big companies giving high regard to Malaysian MBA degree holders. It can be used for personal development but i have yet to see someone actually progressing up the ladder cuz of a MBA. I work for a big MNC and MBA's here arent highly regarded which is why i have not pursued one myself.

I would strongly recommend you to try and attend the INSEAD MBA preview which is held quite often here in Malaysia. For your info INSEAD is ranked 4th in the world ahead of MIT and Cambridge. This will give you a very good insight of how an Ivy League MBA program looks like and entails. Then ull understand why you need to have quality working experience to enrol in the programme. Without it you will be left out of most discussions and you will have no way of following the terminology.

Just to give you perspective, the top MBA programs in the world cost approx RM450K. So if ure targetting a RM20K MBA, you can imagine the difference in standard and recognition. Not saying u need to do a 500K MBA to progress in your career, but it does give you some perspective.

Take your time and do proper research before embarking on an MBA program. Its a big commitment and its not easy. It will be very frustrating for you to 'suffer' for 12-14 months to get a MBA and then find out its a useless piece of paper

Some of the key factors i would consider before embarking on the MBA route would be:

1) Purpose - you need to know what you intend to gain from the MBA and whr ure heading to
2) MBA specialisations - corporate str, economics, finance, internation business, entrepreneurship, general mgmt, etc
3) Quality of student enrolment - more students with upper mgmt / senior positions as compared to lower positions
4) Class diversity - interation with students from varied industries will enrich your learning experience.
5) Ranking of the business school - if the industry doesnt know your business school, career progression options might be limited
6) Accredition - not important for Ivy League business schools, but an added advantage for the others especially if yor career path leads you to large MNC's. Again the key word here is 'recognition'.
7) Strength of the alumni - a stong diversed alumni association is a key factor in your career progression post MBA
8) Cost - if factors 1-7 above are clear, then cost should be secondary. ROI of the top MBA programs will ensure you get back your investment within a few years.

what cybermaster98 said is absolutely spot on !
having attended the first few class, i still face some difficulty in understanding because its all theory. some of the students may raise questions but to the rest of us, we just listen then forget.

i took MBA not for changing career, but to provide me the knowledge needed to run 3 departments. I have 3 senior managers reporting to me and 2 of them are MBA holder. Being in a senior management role in a huge MNC, I think the knowledge i gain from MBA will help me a lot in my daily decision making and though process. My company sent me to various training every year and to diff countries, but none of them can deliver the value that MBA bring to me.

In fact within the class itself i've already identify some potential candidates that I might want to hire to join my company. Classes are getting more and more enjoyable.

Thank you all for the advice here.

I think it's my best interest that I put my MBA ambition on hold first even though I'm dying to to do something useful for myself currently. Can I ask what are the main qualities should I possess to enroll for a top MBA program? What are the criteria that they will be assessing on for the candidates who applied for the programme? Beside the relevant working experience which is the obvious criteria, a more senior ranked position staff in the company will be regarded as better candidate compared to the lower position staff? Do you think is there any main criteria that I should start working on it now?

Really grateful for all the inputs I have here.

This is misleading.

EMBA generally is not well-regarded by most public and private universities in Malaysia and do not carry any weight academically, it is mostly a short-cut for those working not having minimum entry requirement to undergo academic MBA programmes. Most of the time, EMBA is run in part time mode. EMBA is not recognised by MQA and JPA.

MBA otoh, is an ACADEMIC program that is run on both full time and part time mode, and being offered by both public and private universities in Malaysia. Mode of learning for part time will involve evening / weekend classes on-campus (depends on University) and sometime a combination of online learning or 100% online learning mode (in case of OUM / WOU / AeU).

However, WOU (Wawasan Open University) is offering CEMBA aka Commonwealth Executive Master in Business Admin which is recognised by MQA and JPA.

This post has been edited by Protoculture: Oct 22 2015, 04:37 PM

Are you making reference to all EMBA programs or just the Malaysian versions in your claims above?

Malaysian version.

Well then you need to be clear in your statement earlier that you are only referring to Malaysian EMBA programs. I don't have high regard for Malaysian MBA's or EMBA's except the Lancaster & Strathclyde MBA's for reasons mentioned in my earlier posts.

EMBA programs offered by renowned international business schools are very highly regarded in the corporate world both in Malaysia and in other countries. That's why in many cases EMBA programs cost more than MBA's.

That's your prerogative. However, in Malaysian education landscape, recognition by MQA & JPA on academic programmes matter the most.

Prerogative? Its a fact.

As i mentioned earlier, the Malaysian version of a EMBA program may not be recognised and there is good reason for that cuz besides Lancaster and Strathclyde, I don't see any other similar local MBA or EMBA programs holding any weight that has an impact on a person's career.

And MQA only comes in for programs offered in Malaysia. They have no relevance to programs offered outside Malaysia where the majority of the best MBA / EMBA programs are offered. Closest being the INSEAD-UCLA-NUS EMBA program in Singapore.

Against, that's your prerogative.



Yet demands for local MBAs on a part time and full time basis have been on the increase, especially in part time basis. And yes, earning a recognised MBA by JPA and MQA mattered the most for working adults in Malaysia nowadays.



It means jack squat as we are talking in specific Malaysian sector. If you're talking about job prospects internationally, then your points have merits.

U're obviously talking nonsense with little or no knowledge of the corporate world. U mean to say a person with a Harvard MBA has no merits working in Malaysia?

If you want to sell your local MBA program, at least do so with some integrity and basic knowledge of what the corporate world needs and appreciates.

And yes I too am referring to the job market here in Malaysia. FYI, im a Business Unit / Country head for a Fortune 200 company based here in Malaysia so im well aware of the requirements of the corporate circle.

The presumption made here is MBA seekers are looking for career enhancement / advancement. Certainly the "academic" perspective is secondary as many would not consider themselves to join academic profession.

Hence, the recognition of any government agency is also deemed secondary.

Exactly! MQA is just there to make sure courses offered in Malaysia meet a certain 'minimum' standard. And we all know the minimum standard here in Malaysia is low.

Therefore to say that the most important criteria for working adults here in Malaysia is ensuring their MBA qualification is MQA recognised is nonsensical because that requirement only refers to meeting a minimum standard and no way equates to having a qualification that corporate companies look up to and recognise enough to allow that individual to attain significant progress up the ladder.

For courses offered in Malaysia, yes one would want to ensure its MQA recognised as a bare minimum requirement as compared to taking up a local non MQA recognised course which is well below the already low benchmark.

But to assume that foreign MBA qualifications which obviously don't have a MQA recognition is not recognised nor hold any weight in Malaysia, is just foolhardy.