What Postgraduate Business Courses Are Available?

Thinking of doing a postgraduate business course? TopMBA.com looks at the different courses available and the factors to consider when applying for them. 

The wealth of postgraduate business courses available can sometimes appear daunting, and for graduates considering a business career, making the right choice from a widening list of options is one of the most important career choices they will make.

The "BSc-work-MBA-work" versus the "BSc-MSc-work" career trajectory is one of the first choices to think about, but what about those wanting to take their education even further? The postgraduate courses at the upper echelon of education are the PhD, the relatively new EMBA (Executive MBA) and the even more recent innovation the DBA (Doctor of Business Administration). Some of the perennial concerns for business school deans at the top of the education pyramid are those of proactivity versus reactivity, and rigour versus relevance. The world's top business schools, in the postgraduate tier (MBA / MSc) must be seen to be innovative and creative, proactively creating a unique level of education for their students in what is often a very expensive undertaking. This education must have practical applications to the business world, known by some academics as "business relevance", allowing the graduate to take up a desirable position in a company of their choice.

Most schools also have a responsibility to push back the theoretical boundaries of education and stimulate renown for exceptional faculty, research and publishing excellence. This is known as "academic rigour". Thus, many deans have to keep their fingers firmly on the pulse of the business world, be the first to react to movements within the industry, provide their students with a relevant business pedigree to open doors to an excellent career while simultaneously heading a business school renowned for outstanding academic rigour. Harvard, Wharton, Stanford and London Business School are among those pushing back the boundaries of academic knowledge while providing an undeniably relevant education to their graduates.

However, the number of MBAs out there in business is increasing incrementally, leading to a flooding effect. Despite evidence the MBAs are in a booming market, particularly in the fastest growing economies such as China and India, some MBAs are beginning to feel that they need to distinguish themselves even more and are considering further executive education. Angel Diaz, of IE Business School, supports this: "A lot of people also find MBA is a saturated market. There are a lot of people who want to make themselves stand out even more now."

EMBA - Executive MBA

A relative newcomer to the business education family, the EMBA concept filled a need in the market for bright leaders and executives who had already accrued some years of experience. Unlike the more established MBA, targeted at a mid-to-late-20s age group and usually full-time, the EMBA provides study flexibility for the more experienced career profiler. Essentially it is an MBA for those who are further on in their lives and careers, usually in their 30s or 40s, and who were unable to take an MBA earlier in their working lives. Applications to EMBAs are increasing year on year. Begoa de Ros Ravent's, Assistant Director of Global Executive MBA at Spain's IESE GEMBA, notes, "The profile of our EMBA candidates is getting older. The average age in our class this year is 38 years old, with a range that goes from 30 to 55. Many did not get a chance to take MBAs when they were younger, and want to acquire new skills, improve their earning potential, or simply be able to lead their teams better."

The part-time and modular nature of most EMBA programs, usually taking place in the evenings, weekends or by distance-learning, allow those students to continue in full-time employment and live at home with their families while undertaking a thorough business education. Applications to EMBA courses were up nine per cent in 2005 and 16 per cent a year later and, according to recent figures, no fewer than 99 per cent of respondents would highly recommend the EMBA course they took. In the EMBA Council Survey 2005, 68 per cent of participants were promoted during the program, and the average salary increased by 36 per cent, compared to a benchmark of 21 per cent on typical MBA programs. In a large number of cases the student's company gave some kind of financial backing as well as time off to take their EMBAs. Although fewer companies than before are paying 100% of students' fees, 43 per cent of companies are paying over half of those fees.

On average, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) ™ research of corporate sponsors, it takes 17 months from the start of a student's program for a company to gain its return on investment. These are figures that are encouraging to companies and individuals alike in what seems like a win-win situation for both. Business recruiters are increasingly impressed by the talent emerging from EMBA courses. Emmanuelle Mefflet, Training and Talent Development Manager at UCB in Belgium, echoes the opinions of many recruiters: "The Executive MBA is becoming more and more popular. It is interesting for people to develop themselves and we certainly recruit people who have these qualifications."

PhD - The doctorate

The PhD is top of the pile of a research education in any discipline, offering the highest academic rigour without necessarily having relevance to a business career. The doctorate allows the student to analyze one salient and unique aspect of the business world in extreme detail. Based on thorough and guided research, rather than teaching, the PhD requires the approval of a board of academics from a school to agree that the topic is worth studying and funding and that it will add to the sum of overall human knowledge on a detailed topic.

The PhD is a full-time and all-consuming research qualification about which a student must be, at the very least, passionate. The PhD is largely, though not exclusively, for those who want to pursue an academic career. David Bach, Associate Dean of MBA programs and Professor of Strategy at IE Business School, says: "In the US tradition, which is becoming more common in Europe, a PhD is more for people who want to teach or research in the field of management. In the past in Europe they've been pursuing it for different reasons but it's now based on the US model.  They tend to be four to six year programs and are organized around training researchers or scholars. In a PhD, teaching is by definition secondary to the research."

Simon Stockley, Director of Full-time MBA Program at Tanaka Business School, agrees: "The relevance of the PhD depends on what the topic is. Some, such as quantitative finance, have a clear career path and can end up with lucrative senior positions in investment banking, pension funds and so on. Most people will choose to do a PhD to become academics or to promote their consulting career. In some cases people will have this as a clear career path, though more commonly it's something that piques their interest at MBA or MSc level that leads them to a PhD." Though a high percentage of PhDs will gravitate towards academia, there is room in industry, as Sej Butler, recruitment manager of IBM Europe, says: "In a handful of our divisions a PhD would be considered very highly. More than 50 per cent in that group have an MSc but there is a need for real heavyweight mathematicians right at the very top."

DBA - Doctor of Business Administration

In recent years, business schools have noticed a niche of people who want some of the academic rigour of the PhD, yet do not have the right personal profile to do one. Angel Diaz noticed this when interviewing for PhD places: "We found lots of people who wanted to do a doctorate but didn't have the profile to do a PhD. In our opinion it's not worth doing a PhD unless you want to go into academia. Some of these are hyper-achievers who want do more with their lives, to be part-time academics but don't want to do theoretical research. They are older, do well in life and can't afford to be out of work full time and aren't going for a complete career change."

For this kind of profile, the DBA was created, based on a Harvard model, and pioneered largely by European business schools such as Cranfield, Kingston, Aberdeen, Glamorgan, and Monash in Australia. Most schools have PhDs and DBAs in parallel and both are set at a senior level but oriented to different markets and a different way of delivery, the DBA being part-time and PhD full-time.

Diaz continues: "We have people who don't necessarily want a career change but who want a new challenge from a level where everyone has an MBA. Most also want to teach part time. While the school requires rigour as well as relevance, most DBA students want to be more on the relevance side. They also want to retire young and to keep busy after retiring and academia offers them this. There is a very strong demand for this kind of education. They are very interesting people for us as professors. They have a fresh approach to life for us.

"For the DBA we ask people to have an MBA, while EMBAs don't. When you do this kind of education, we require methodology, understanding the state of the art and the emphasis is on applied research, rather than the principles of the discipline as taught in the EMBA. We are changing their mindset. They have to support their ideas, have ways to prove things. They are asking the questions not answering them." Bach says: "The DBA would be for people looking into a career in consulting but who want to specialize in one subject. IE launched one last year, a three-year program still organized around a thesis but more practical than a PhD. It's the kind of degree one would use to distinguish oneself as a consultant or perhaps if there's a particular issue you want to explore. Ours is a three year part-time program, going beyond an MBA but not necessarily with the understanding you've dedicated your whole lives to just one subject, like in a PhD."

Jean-Noel Dollet, who works for Moet-Hennessey in Singapore and who is taking the DBA at IE Business School in Spain, says: "After my MBA it was a clear aim for me to attend a doctorate program but, before that, I wanted to work at least five to 10 years. My objective in doing a doctorate is to be able to teach future managers later. Because I am more a practitioner than academically oriented, a DBA program is better designed for me than a PhD. Also, I did not want to attend a full time program, and wanted to continue to work at the same time in order to keep in touch with the real world during this doctorate. "For me there is an important difference between a doctorate and an MBA. During the MBA they teach you how to manage many projects at the same time, with a lot of stress. During a doctorate, first you select what you are interested in, and then you go deeper into the topic and material. It gives me a better vision of my job allowing me to analyze it more efficiently. Doing my doctorate is like being in a helicopter, having a general view of my work and stopping when I need to in order to go deeper inside to analyze what I am interested in." The opportunities at the highest tier of education exist and are expanding. If the idea of more education, to distinguish yourself from an increasing pack, suits you, the question is to decide which will be best for you.