UCL is launching a new online MBA programme - the first inaugural cohort starts this October.

They seem to put emphasis on data / quantitative methods on one side, and innovation / entrepreneurship on the other.

Programme looks rather well thought through with weekly live classes, 90 minutes of synchronous collaboration with other students per week per module (1-3 modules per term).

The price is very high for an online MBA (£55k) and considering UCL was supposed to launch EMBA earlier but cancelled the plans, it makes the whole thing a bit suspicious. Will it survive and won’t they close it after some time?

On the other hand, they already have very strong MSc programms and wouldn’t risk an MBA that is inferior, would they?

What do you think?

I am not sure that UCL's MSc.s in management are 'very' strong. They don't get in the FT MiM ranking or the less exclusive QS ranking: https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/business-masters-rankings/management/2018 I think that after eight or nine years the MiM would be ranked if it's was very high quality.

I am sure that UCL selects able students, but the teaching quality generally at UCL is average rather than excellent. Like most big UoL colleges, it can benefit from the huge supply of students wanting to take MSc degrees in London without needing to try too hard.

The business model for the UCL MBA surely rests on its main MBA, delivered in Beijing by PKU. That is a cash cow and imagine these are courses which the PKU students are already taking, and can easily be rolled out. It look Oxford and Cambridge a long time to establish strong business schools, and UCL does not have the same resources. I can't see any scenario where the UCL course is the best value for anyone. Imperial is £36k, for comparison.

If UCL/PKU MBA is delivered by PKU, then I think this one is not resting on it as they say explicitly on the site the staff is theirs. So I think it’s the staff leading their MiM degrees.

I am indeed considering Imperial too - and only these two as I’m counting on immersions and attending some classes in London where I used to live and plan on moving back in in a few years.

UCL got my attention as I’ve got a feeling their programme is slightly more modern. I don’t have strong/tangible arguments to back this “feeling” though.

I come from tech/startups industry and UCL SoM’s supposedly strong emphasis on innovation/technology/analytics/entrepreneurship sounds good to me.

Imperial sounds like a safer choice though, as you don’t believe UCL MBA will gain a strong enough teaching and recognition in just a couple of years, correct?

[Edited by capmada on Sep 02, 2019]

Compare the UCL MBAs in Beijing and London. I think there will be huge reuse of the curriculum, learning design, assessment and so on. But perhaps I am wrong. I sent one of my colleagues on UCL's part time MSc in technology entrepreneurship, and if you want to focus on that topic perhaps a specialist masters will suit you better? Given that the Warwick campus in London and Imperial MBAs are so well established, I can't see any reason to take a risk. The cohort won't be anywhere near as strong.

That's a lot of money for a brand new, relatively unproven, program.

Imagine, it's 70% more than the Warwick DLMBA, which is #1in the FT ranking. http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/online-mba-ranking-2019

I wonder if they'll be targeting corporate clients, rather than individuals.

They have no sales channel for exec ed, which would be needed if that was the case.