High-quality, low-budget, alternatives to triple-crown MBAs have never been better. However, the industrial effort employed in marketing below-average, for-profit schools has never been more effective at concealing them. In this thread, I'd love to pool our ideas about the best-value alternatives at different price points.







Naturally, none of these are better investments than an excellent MBA. A high-quality MBA will increase your lifetime earnings by a huge amount, equal to many years' earnings. Sadly, not everyone is able to make that investment, and many of whose who are able are not prepared to take the risk.





Most of the cheapest triple-crown distance learning MBAs are around $14k to $25k (see below for the OUBS MBA special pricing through Amity). A weakening pound means that British schools may seem discounted, with past or current FT-ranked business schools at Aston, Bradford, the Open University, Oxford Brookes and RGU around $22k (And Manchester Met and the OU, via Amity, mush less). Illinois's iMBA and Wisconsin's Web MBA are arguably better designed and higher value. However, there's a wide range of price-points below there.







Sadly, most people don't realize that an MBA from a terrible school, lacking any respected international accreditation, is worse than an alternative business education from a better school, both in terms of educational value and value perception by the most desirable employers. People get seduced by glamourous-sounding foreign schools, many of which are almost unknown in the institution's supposed home city.







Below are some of the better alternatives I know to an unaccredited MBA at a few price points. Affordable options don't stay available for long, so seize the day.



- c. $0 A Coursera specialization https://www.coursera.org/browse/business?facets=skillNameMultiTag%2CjobTitleMultiTag%2CdifficultyLevelTag%2Clanguages%2CentityTypeTag%3ASpecializations%2CpartnerMultiTag%3AUniversity+of+Illinois+at+Urbana-Champaign%2CcategoryMultiTag%3Abusiness%2CsubcategoryMultiTag&sortField=



- c. £1811 The Maryland MBA Micromasters https://www.edx.org/micromasters/USMx-UMD-MBA-Core-Curriculum



- c. $2940 the University of the People MBA (has US national accreditation, which isn't the highest. However, at only 17% more than the MicroMasters I think this is better value) https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ba/degrees/master-of-business-administration/



- The LSE graduate-entry BSc in management has new pricing, making the graduate track much less attractive than a triple crown MBA.

- $9000 The high-respected Open University's triple crown accredited Business School has a budget option where tuition is delivered by Amity, a private Indian university with US regional accredition. I think the OU is better respected in the UK than Manchester Met, and has been running one of the largest distance-learning MBAs since the 1980s. It ends with a practice-based capstone rather than research activity.

 - The AACSB-accredited MBA at Missouri State is now available only for students in the USA. https://outreach.missouristate.edu/online/master-of-business-administration.htm



- c. £14,000 Triple-crown MBA from Manchester Met has had a 25% fee increase but still remains relataively affordable. It ends with a research-based professional project, which could be an advantage for people planning a PhD: https://globalonline.mmu.ac.uk/online-courses/mba-business-administration/




Which schools should I add to this list? Are any of these options less costly in your country?







PS Pricing updated to May 2021.

[Edited by Duncan on May 04, 2021]

Very useful information, thanks Duncan.

-IAE Nancy (university of Lorraine) offers MBA (MAE 2) for £4000 (in French language)
http://iae-nancy.univ-lorraine.fr/formation-continue-enseignement-distance/lenseignement-distance

-Open University of Cyprus offers MBA for £4800 (in English)
http://www.ouc.ac.cy/web/guest/s3/progrspoudon/de/description

Although they don't have one of the three international accreditations they both are very much recognised in their respective countries (the equivalent of the "regional accreditation" in the US).

-There are also finish polytechnics (Universities of applied sciences) that offer MBAs for free for europeans, although some of them need meetings in finland.

-French Masters in Computing. For example from Université de Franche-Comté cost 700e for the whole masters, it is great value for those that know French. example: http://ctu.univ-fcomte.fr/en/master-i2a
I know it is not management related but the price seemed worth mentioning in Alternatives! Not many MSc out there for this price! Many MScs in france are very cheap. Universite de bordeaux also has a MIAGE one to check out

[Edited by George Patsoulis on Oct 10, 2019]

Two cheap options we recently discussed

-Amity http://www.amityglobalvarsity.com/Home/program_mba offers an MBA from Open University for $9000. (edit: make sure you confirm with OU that they are the ones issuing the degree, if it has the international accreditation, and any other details needed)

-Manchester Metropolitan: https://globalonline.mmu.ac.uk/online-courses/mba-business-administration/ offers MBA for £10,906. Triple accredited

I think these two are the cheapest accredited options in english.

[Edited by George Patsoulis on Feb 18, 2020]

The Amity price is great for an OU-validated degree, but the faculty is not that impressive: http://www.amityglobalvarsity.com/Home/program_mba



Also, is this the OUBS degree? Maybe you could really call this a triple crown MBA, depending on whether it's from the OU or the OUBS.

[Edited by Duncan on May 03, 2021]

Yeah true. I edited the post to reflect this.
Potential applicants should make sure to contact the issuing university to learn the details about the degree.
I see there is a picture of the degree. And it is issued by OU but states it is a program by amity.

I guess it still is a decent alternative for those that are on a tight budget and can't increase it to afford something better

[Edited by George Patsoulis on Feb 18, 2020]

Hi All! If you do not mind I would add one more school to the list: Nottingham Trent: 15k GBP per Online MBA program, well rank by Guardian, ranked by FT, 128k alumni with 24k international alumni

That's a reasonably priced program but I think this thread is geared more towards non-MBA programs.

How about best-value Masters in Management from an accredited university?

The ones with the highest salaries produce the most value: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-management-2019

Duncan, the programs on this list cost at least USD20000, and I didn't see any that are fully online except HEC Paris MSc in Innovation.

As a fully online value alternative, how about University of York Online MSc in Innovation, Leadership and Management for under £10,000 ? Times Higher ed ranking 128, seems a better option than Missouri State or Manchester Metropolitan for those who don't need the MBA initials on their CV. Thoughts?

You are mistaken. None of the six programmes I listed in the post at the start of this thread cost that much.

The York MSc costs more than the Missouri MBA and, as you can see from the design, is not an MBA. It's got less than half the quantitative/financial content of the MBAs discussed here. The York school is excellent for undergraduate teaching and for faculty research, but I could not warmly recommend an MBA provider that lacked any of the three 'triple crown' accreditations.

You are mistaken. None of the six programmes I listed in the post at the start of this thread cost that much.

Ask anyone who buys beds: the cheap alternatives are rarely the cheapest. The ranked masters degrees will increase the earning potential of the business school graduates by several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cheaper ones might pay off faster ($200 certificate versus $20,000) degree but the _net_ value of an excellent degree will always be higher.

PS you asked for the best value, not the cheapest online.

[Edited by Duncan on Apr 24, 2020]

Most of the six options in my opening post don't require work experience, by the way.

The recently announced and recently discussed program from the University of illinois UC. A MiM with a price of £8800, from an accredited business school, and from a very well respected university. it is definitely worth a spot in the value alternatives.https://www.coursera.org/degrees/ms-management-illinois

more information about it will be released during May 2020. 

The recently announced and recently discussed program from the University of illinois UC. A MiM with a price of £8800, from an accredited business school, and from a very well respected university. it is definitely worth a spot in the value alternatives.https://www.coursera.org/degrees/ms-management-illinois

more information about it will be released during May 2020. 

UIUC has really been killing it with its fairly-priced online management offerings. 

High-quality, low-budget, alternatives to triple-crown MBAs have never been better. However, the industrial effort employed in marketing below-average, for-profit schools has never been more effective at concealing them. In this thread, I'd love to pool our ideas about the best-value alternatives at different price points.





Naturally, none of these are better investments than an excellent MBA. A high-quality MBA will increase your lifetime earnings by a huge amount, equal to many years' earnings. Sadly, not everyone is able to make that investment, and many of whose who are able are not prepared to take the risk.





I think the cheapest triple-crown distance learning MBAs are around $14k to $25k. The weakening pound means that British schools seem discounted, with past or current FT-ranked business schools at Aston, Bradford, the Open University, Oxford Brookes and RGU around $22k (And Manchester Met and the OU, via Amity, mush less). Illinois's iMBA and Wisconsin's Web MBA are arguably better designed and great value. However, there's a wide range of price-points below there.





Sadly, most people don't realize that an MBA from a terrible school, lacking any respected international accreditation, is worse than an alternative business education from a better school, both in terms of educational value and value perception by the most desirable employers. People get seduced by glamourous-sounding foreign schools, many of which are almost unknown in the institution's supposed home city.





Below are some of the better alternatives I know to an unaccredited MBA at a few price points.


- c. £0 A Coursera specialization https://www.coursera.org/browse/business?facets=skillNameMultiTag%2CjobTitleMultiTag%2CdifficultyLevelTag%2Clanguages%2CentityTypeTag%3ASpecializations%2CpartnerMultiTag%3AUniversity+of+Illinois+at+Urbana-Champaign%2CcategoryMultiTag%3Abusiness%2CsubcategoryMultiTag&sortField=


- c. £1000 The Maryland MBA Micromasters https://www.edx.org/micromasters/USMx-UMD-MBA-Core-Curriculum


- c. £2000 the University of the People MBA (has US national accrediation, which isn't the highest) https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ba/degrees/master-of-business-administration/


- c. £3000 LSE graduate-entry BSc in management http://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/uolip/programmes#Bsc_standard


- c. £9000 AACSB-accredited MBA at Missouri State https://outreach.missouristate.edu/online/master-of-business-administration.htm


- c. £11,000 Triple-crown MBA from Manchester Met: https://globalonline.mmu.ac.uk/online-courses/mba-business-administration/





PS Which schools should I add to this list? Are any of these options less costly in your country?

[Edited by aslamo on Jan 28, 2021]

Thanks for spotting that. I have updated the post. It's still excellent value for some who wants the core of the MBA in just one year, and with a modern curriculum. However, it does make the UoP MBA a better choice for people who want to study over two years, have more assessment and better feedback, and have a nationall-accredited US degree.