MBA with my legal background


Marksy

Hi there,

as I studied law and hold a Master of Laws, I asked myself in daily work, if I could boost my career by going for a MBA. Therefore I focus on a distance learning MBA beneath my job, which I am not willing even get out of for a year. After having read some posts with its discussions on different business schools, I came to the conclusion that a MBA will fit my career targets as I am working in a highly digitalized environment where not only legal expertise is helpful but even - in my opinion - knowledge in business issus could be useful. From my point of view the whole buzzwording within this context, from Connected Car to Smart Home, should be seen from different ankles. That's why I prefer a MBA which contains at least one module focussing on the digital stuff. Besides, I should mention that I am German and strongly focus on extending my language skills and want to use the MBA not only as an career boost but on a second glance for improving my language skills as well.

Even if it is ambitious finalizing the MBA within a year, I just want to try. But I haven't found any programme which allows studying only one year to the degree. After scribbling together the business schools some of them are finally in my personal scope:
Durham
Strathclyde
Bradford
Warwick (out-of-cost)

2nd tier
Birmingham
Queen Mary
Aston
Henley

I have read that Durham is exclusively a MBA programme with paperwork, no need of any group work or joining classes. Correct? Maybe you could help claryfying some things being on my mind at the moment.

Thanks in advance

[Edited by Marksy on Sep 22, 2017]

Hi there,

as I studied law and hold a Master of Laws, I asked myself in daily work, if I could boost my career by going for a MBA. Therefore I focus on a distance learning MBA beneath my job, which I am not willing even get out of for a year. After having read some posts with its discussions on different business schools, I came to the conclusion that a MBA will fit my career targets as I am working in a highly digitalized environment where not only legal expertise is helpful but even - in my opinion - knowledge in business issus could be useful. From my point of view the whole buzzwording within this context, from Connected Car to Smart Home, should be seen from different ankles. That's why I prefer a MBA which contains at least one module focussing on the digital stuff. Besides, I should mention that I am German and strongly focus on extending my language skills and want to use the MBA not only as an career boost but on a second glance for improving my language skills as well.

Even if it is ambitious finalizing the MBA within a year, I just want to try. But I haven't found any programme which allows studying only one year to the degree. After scribbling together the business schools some of them are finally in my personal scope:
Durham
Strathclyde
Bradford
Warwick (out-of-cost)

2nd tier
Birmingham
Queen Mary
Aston
Henley

I have read that Durham is exclusively a MBA programme with paperwork, no need of any group work or joining classes. Correct? Maybe you could help claryfying some things being on my mind at the moment.

Thanks in advance
quote
George Pat...

Edinburgh, Bath, Lancaster don't have distance programs, do they?
Manchester has a great program, if you can afford it (and the travels)

Edinburgh, Bath, Lancaster don't have distance programs, do they?
Manchester has a great program, if you can afford it (and the travels)
quote
Marksy

Edinburgh, Bath, Lancaster don't have distance programs, do they?
Manchester has a great program, if you can afford it (and the travels)


You are absolutely right when saying that Bath and Lancaster do not offer a distance learning MBA. But Edinburgh (Heriot-Watt University) obviously do. Maybe I had only roughly checked this. I haven't had in mind that Manchester only offers its MBA in combination with presence courses. Is it possible and fair comparing Full-time-MBA-rankings with the FT-ranking relating to Online-MBA-programmes? Birmingham is ranked #73, Durham #76 and Bradford #100 in the ranking of most popular business schoools worldwide. Edinburgh is ranked #4 which is surprising related to some positive votes from board members concerning Durham (#11 of most popular business schools in UK 2017). Durham is in the FT ranking of Online MBAs second best school in the UK. Having a look on the salary increase, Bradford is first, Durham second from my personal list. Manchester is even better than Warwick in the FT Global MBA ranking – confusing. However, it might not be possible to find from an objective point of view the ultimate business school. But, as some results from rankings show, Durham seems to be a pretty good choice. Henley is ranked so much better than Bocconi ( Economist Full-Time MBA 2016). Strathclyde is #41 on Financial Times EMBA 2016 ranking. Concerning these unequal results I am quite a bit confused which MBA-programme is the best choice, having in mind that it should be 100% online teaching with an adequate price-performance relation.

[quote]Edinburgh, Bath, Lancaster don't have distance programs, do they?
Manchester has a great program, if you can afford it (and the travels) [/quote]

You are absolutely right when saying that Bath and Lancaster do not offer a distance learning MBA. But Edinburgh (Heriot-Watt University) obviously do. Maybe I had only roughly checked this. I haven't had in mind that Manchester only offers its MBA in combination with presence courses. Is it possible and fair comparing Full-time-MBA-rankings with the FT-ranking relating to Online-MBA-programmes? Birmingham is ranked #73, Durham #76 and Bradford #100 in the ranking of most popular business schoools worldwide. Edinburgh is ranked #4 which is surprising related to some positive votes from board members concerning Durham (#11 of most popular business schools in UK 2017). Durham is in the FT ranking of Online MBAs second best school in the UK. Having a look on the salary increase, Bradford is first, Durham second from my personal list. Manchester is even better than Warwick in the FT Global MBA ranking – confusing. However, it might not be possible to find from an objective point of view the ultimate business school. But, as some results from rankings show, Durham seems to be a pretty good choice. Henley is ranked so much better than Bocconi ( Economist Full-Time MBA 2016). Strathclyde is #41 on Financial Times EMBA 2016 ranking. Concerning these unequal results I am quite a bit confused which MBA-programme is the best choice, having in mind that it should be 100% online teaching with an adequate price-performance relation.
quote
Duncan

No, this website's popularity ranking is about the volume of visits, not positive votes. Heriot-Watt gets a lot of visits from students, often in Egypt, who cannot enter a degree with international accreditation. Do not confuse web visits for a sign of quality. It would be odd to pick it over an internationally-accredited programme like the others you mention.

No, this website's popularity ranking is about the volume of visits, not positive votes. Heriot-Watt gets a lot of visits from students, often in Egypt, who cannot enter a degree with international accreditation. Do not confuse web visits for a sign of quality. It would be odd to pick it over an internationally-accredited programme like the others you mention.
quote
Marksy

No, this website's popularity ranking is about the volume of visits, not positive votes. Heriot-Watt gets a lot of visits from students, often in Egypt, who cannot enter a degree with international accreditation. Do not confuse web visits for a sign of quality. It would be odd to pick it over an internationally-accredited programme like the others you mention.


Thank you for your words. Could you recommend one of these business schools I have mentioned and do a ranking? As your profile obvously shows, you are pretty experienced with some business schools. Unfortunately you have no concrete contact points to one of the schools I have mentioned. However, only Durham is participant in the Russell-group, but none of the other both I count to the 1st tier candidates within my personal ranking.

Sadly Imperial is not affordable to me as I will pay the fees on my own. Aston is ranked as tier one in CEO Magazine 2017. Is Durham for example far that much better than Strathclyde or Bradford? According to this I know that none of the business schools mentioned are target universities of MBB. But at a first step I want to increase my business knowledge and present an attractive degree to potential employers. The MBA ought to close the gap between legal practicing/experience and the business conditions towards legal advisors.

Is it possible to do the courses faster than within two years? Do any of these schools afford personal presence on campus or is it possible studying 100% online?

[Edited by Marksy on Sep 22, 2017]

[quote]No, this website's popularity ranking is about the volume of visits, not positive votes. Heriot-Watt gets a lot of visits from students, often in Egypt, who cannot enter a degree with international accreditation. Do not confuse web visits for a sign of quality. It would be odd to pick it over an internationally-accredited programme like the others you mention. [/quote]

Thank you for your words. Could you recommend one of these business schools I have mentioned and do a ranking? As your profile obvously shows, you are pretty experienced with some business schools. Unfortunately you have no concrete contact points to one of the schools I have mentioned. However, only Durham is participant in the Russell-group, but none of the other both I count to the 1st tier candidates within my personal ranking.

Sadly Imperial is not affordable to me as I will pay the fees on my own. Aston is ranked as tier one in CEO Magazine 2017. Is Durham for example far that much better than Strathclyde or Bradford? According to this I know that none of the business schools mentioned are target universities of MBB. But at a first step I want to increase my business knowledge and present an attractive degree to potential employers. The MBA ought to close the gap between legal practicing/experience and the business conditions towards legal advisors.

Is it possible to do the courses faster than within two years? Do any of these schools afford personal presence on campus or is it possible studying 100% online?
quote
George Pat...

Ah, I see your confusion

Edinburgh Business School (EBS) is not University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS). Those are two different universities

Try to delete those that are already covered in the discussion as not suitable and the list should be much shorter and narrowed

Ah, I see your confusion

Edinburgh Business School (EBS) is not University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS). Those are two different universities

Try to delete those that are already covered in the discussion as not suitable and the list should be much shorter and narrowed
quote
Marksy

George, thank you for clarification. Consequently I deleted those business schools from my first post which are conotaed as being not worth to be taking into consideration. As the list is extremely shortened by deletion, maybe you could help me finding the right one out of those. Did any of the listed ones the opportunity of taking an accelerated track? Is it true that Durham solely focus on paperwork instead of projects and group works?

George, thank you for clarification. Consequently I deleted those business schools from my first post which are conotaed as being not worth to be taking into consideration. As the list is extremely shortened by deletion, maybe you could help me finding the right one out of those. Did any of the listed ones the opportunity of taking an accelerated track? Is it true that Durham solely focus on paperwork instead of projects and group works?
quote
George Pat...

on the link
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/n1t717.pdf

You can click on each module (online ones) and see how each is assessed. I imagine the other universities have something similar

on the link
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/n1t717.pdf

You can click on each module (online ones) and see how each is assessed. I imagine the other universities have something similar
quote
Marksy

on the link
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/n1t717.pdf

You can click on each module (online ones) and see how each is assessed. I imagine the other universities have something similar


Thank you for the link, George. It seems to be, as mentioned in other topics, as if there is a lot of paperwork within each module. No group discussions or presentations indeed. Yesterday I tried to make my "final" list which contains as follows:

Durham
Strahclyde
Bradford
Birminghan
Aston
Queen Mary
Henley

I ranked them as they could be seen from high to low from a subjective perspective. Hopefully anyone agree with this list and could give me a final sugesstion which one is worth spending money on its programe.

[quote]on the link
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/n1t717.pdf

You can click on each module (online ones) and see how each is assessed. I imagine the other universities have something similar [/quote]

Thank you for the link, George. It seems to be, as mentioned in other topics, as if there is a lot of paperwork within each module. No group discussions or presentations indeed. Yesterday I tried to make my "final" list which contains as follows:

Durham
Strahclyde
Bradford
Birminghan
Aston
Queen Mary
Henley

I ranked them as they could be seen from high to low from a subjective perspective. Hopefully anyone agree with this list and could give me a final sugesstion which one is worth spending money on its programe.
quote
Marksy

What about Illinois, Nebraska and Massachusetts (Amherst)? Worth to consider or should I concentrate on the european ones?

What about Illinois, Nebraska and Massachusetts (Amherst)? Worth to consider or should I concentrate on the european ones?
quote
Inactive User

Has the QMUL program even started yet? I think it's too early to tell on that one, better choose something that has verifiable results. Warwick is out of the question because of the cost? That's a shame since it ranked quite highly in the FT.

Durham would be a good choice, otherwise. Those US programs are good ones, but if you are considering those make sure those have decent networks in the areas / companies you're looking into working at.

Has the QMUL program even started yet? I think it's too early to tell on that one, better choose something that has verifiable results. Warwick is out of the question because of the cost? That's a shame since it ranked quite highly in the FT.

Durham would be a good choice, otherwise. Those US programs are good ones, but if you are considering those make sure those have decent networks in the areas / companies you're looking into working at.
quote
Marksy

Hi mba hipster,

thank your for your reponse and claryfying some misunderstandings. As I have seen Warwick is nearly leading the Distance Learning MBA-ranking from FT. But, as I said, Warwick is not affordable for me at this. Therefore I considered some other schools with a quite good reputation and thought that at least Durham is close to Warwick as a triple crown accredited school.
Currently I am not focussing on a special company, but am personally bound to Germany so far. Emphasiszing that I am planning to improve my language skills, I don't want to study in Germany. Furthermore there are no programms existings which offer the opportunity of studying on a distance learning-basis.
Durham, Strathclyde and Bradford are names which will be dropped in whenever asked for a fundable business school with good credits. Birmingham is also member of the Russell Group besides Queen Mary and Durham, but not yet considered in any ranking. Illionois is ranked better than Birmingham and close to Durham in Financial Times Global MBA 2017. In your opinion - and please, others are also asked - could there be made a clear ranking relating to the business schools I have mentioned?

Coming back to the question I also raised: Is it possible to go for the MBA within 1 1/2 years by distance learning?

[Edited by Marksy on Sep 27, 2017]

Hi mba hipster,

thank your for your reponse and claryfying some misunderstandings. As I have seen Warwick is nearly leading the Distance Learning MBA-ranking from FT. But, as I said, Warwick is not affordable for me at this. Therefore I considered some other schools with a quite good reputation and thought that at least Durham is close to Warwick as a triple crown accredited school.
Currently I am not focussing on a special company, but am personally bound to Germany so far. Emphasiszing that I am planning to improve my language skills, I don't want to study in Germany. Furthermore there are no programms existings which offer the opportunity of studying on a distance learning-basis.
Durham, Strathclyde and Bradford are names which will be dropped in whenever asked for a fundable business school with good credits. Birmingham is also member of the Russell Group besides Queen Mary and Durham, but not yet considered in any ranking. Illionois is ranked better than Birmingham and close to Durham in Financial Times Global MBA 2017. In your opinion - and please, others are also asked - could there be made a clear ranking relating to the business schools I have mentioned?

Coming back to the question I also raised: Is it possible to go for the MBA within 1 1/2 years by distance learning?
quote
George Pat...

Durham is very good. All the ones in your list except QMUL have triple accreditation

If you don't plan to use the MBA for networking and finding new job through their career services, then illinois is great

If you plan to use the MBA for networking and career services, then you need to check which ones are better networked in the country you plan to work

Did you check which ones offer the type of assessment you want? Some of them have exams and not coursework as assessment.
If you check that, you should be able to remove some more from the list and end up with 4-5 that you can apply to.

Durham is very good. All the ones in your list except QMUL have triple accreditation

If you don't plan to use the MBA for networking and finding new job through their career services, then illinois is great

If you plan to use the MBA for networking and career services, then you need to check which ones are better networked in the country you plan to work

Did you check which ones offer the type of assessment you want? Some of them have exams and not coursework as assessment.
If you check that, you should be able to remove some more from the list and end up with 4-5 that you can apply to.
quote
Inactive User

Why don't you check out LinkedIn and Xing, to see if you can get a sense of each of these schools' alumni footprints in Germany. My sense is that there won't be huge differences between those schools you're looking at, but you might be surprised.

I do not think that any of these MBA programs can be completed in 1.5 years, but check with the schools.

Why don't you check out LinkedIn and Xing, to see if you can get a sense of each of these schools' alumni footprints in Germany. My sense is that there won't be huge differences between those schools you're looking at, but you might be surprised.

I do not think that any of these MBA programs can be completed in 1.5 years, but check with the schools.
quote

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