Why study the MBA

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship. The FAQs have been divided into nine categories. However if your answer can’t be found here please DON’T hesitate to contact us. We are here to help.

You can also find our supporters group for the scholarship  on www.linkedin.com.

Why should I study for an MBA when I am already successful in my career? I deliver results and am judged on my output, not my qualifications.

An MBA qualification is not merely about adding letters after your name, although it does provides additional tool in your tool kit to be more successful in your career.

The Cranfield MBA in particular, will dramatically increase your skills through intensive learning from world leading academic staff and your peers, that is, a student body from all over the world who have work experience from many different industries and a track record of success.

Cranfield alumni have gone on to high levels of achievement, either in the corporate world or running their own businesses, e.g. John McFarlane (MBA 1975) formerly CEO ANZ Bank; Martin Dalgliesh (MBA 1997) formerly CEO – New Media, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, Miles Flint (MBA 1982) President, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications; Elena Ambrosiadou (1988) the second highest paid woman in the UK after J K Rowling (at GBP13 million!) and Alexandra Chapman (MBA 1988) an entrepreneur, Co-creator of Totally Optimized Projects and also co-founder of this Scholarship.

The Economist Intelligence Unit 2011 worldwide ranking places Cranfield  No. 23 overall and No. 1 in the UK for Education Experience. Whilst Australia business schools also appear on the rankings and do provide quality education, they cannot match the international experience and exposure obtained by studying at a School where over 100 nationalities attend. Nor can they match the “eat, breath, sleep” experience of living on the Cranfield campus for 12 intense months.

Doing the Cranfield MBA will give you a chance to spend 12 months intensively developing yourself and broadening your skill base. It puts you in control of your career, rather than you being dependent on the organisation finding the next challenge for you. Attending Cranfield is about escalating your personal development and playing in a much bigger and demanding pond.

What will I learn that will be useful? I’m not really interested in theory. What I learn needs to be practical and directly relevant. The MBA seems to go over the same ground as my first degree.

The course content is demanding, intense and incredibly interesting. It is not the 101 version but rather subject matter, researched and taught by the world leading experts.

Cranfield covers foundation topics to a rigorous level and then you can specialise in particular themes e.g. innovation, organisational change. More importantly Cranfield focuses on team work and how to derive the best out of your team to achieve successful results for the entire team. In business we rarely operate alone; successful are those that can derive the best out of colleagues to achieve phenomenal results.

Cranfield don’t just teach the theory, they teach how to implement the theory. It is a practical approach that is achieved through business simulations, company based projects, leadership challenges and a crisis management exercise.

Isn’t an MBA really for the “corporate types”? Whilst I am doing well in that regard, I’m not sure that I see my career as climbing the corporate ladder in the longer term.

The breadth and intensity of learning from the Cranfield MBA dramatically increases your options – you will acquire the skills to move any where in the organisation, to follow your passion into a new career, or to run your own business and succeed.

Many graduates do change careers. Or go on to head up major organisations. Or set up their own business. For people who want to run their own business there is no better place than Cranfield to study – it is a worldwide leader in entrepreneurship and enterprise studies.

Isn’t an MBA the degree you do when you don’t know what you want to do or aren’t bright enough to do anything else?

People who choose to do MBA are intelligent and have decided that a Masters degree in Business suits their personal needs for further learning and personal development.

Cranfield takes outstanding people from all over the world. Its current GMAT average score is 660 (the top 13% of the population).

More importantly, Cranfield requires far greater work experience than most other Post-graduate schools.

If I get a Cranfield MBA will people say “wow”?

The Cranfield Full-Time MBA has a top international reputation and is highly ranked on 3 most influential rankins – the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) worldwide rankings , The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Top ranking international companies recruit from Cranfield including McKinsey, Ford, Citibank, American Express.

I am not sure that I would be the right candidate to have a chance of winning.

Apply and find out! Just the experience of applying for the scholarship will be invaluable – short-listed applicants will experience the top management screening process. Finalists will get a personal feedback report from an internationally renowned executive search organisation.

Will I earn more?

Over 90% of Cranfield MBAs have a job within 90 days of completing the course. Most 2005 graduates doubled their salary after leaving Cranfield. Cranfield graduates command some of the highest salaries in Europe for new graduates.

Most people who attend Cranfield will talk about what they got out of it personally.

I’m not sure that I can afford to take a year out. It’s a huge investment in time

Cranfield crams the equivalent academic workload load of the two year MBA courses into 12 months. It is a pressure cooker environment which dramatically increases the intensity whilst still maintaining the quality of the learning. It is really what you’d experience in a high pressured job, juggling many different tasks and making decisions in a very short time frame!

Will I get left behind in the corporate ladder by taking time out? Others could overtake me or I could do the course and then just end up in the same place.

What you learn at Cranfield will give you a shot at the jobs which you would never consider and never be considered for at the moment.

The one year compressed course that Cranfield offers is a very time-effective investment. Less time away. Less time without an income. Less time for others to leapfrog you. A one year investment for a 20+ year career is good sense.