The Portable MBA Series MBA
Q: (1) Does anyone know who is now distributing the Heriot Watt MBA materials
in Canada?
(2) If there is no longer a Canadian distributor, from whom else can I make
the purchase?
(3) And more importantly, given the value of the cheesy Canadian dollar on
the international market, who might be
distributing the HW materials for the best price??
A:Because the university economists in Edinburgh are staunchly for a free market
economy, they always insisted that every agent be permitted to sell to
students anywhere in the world, and set their own prices and terms.
During my tenure, where our office could only advertise in the US and Canada,
we often had students or potential students from Bangladesh to Bolivia asking
for our 'best' price, our terms, guarantees, etc. We ended up selling to
students in over 100 countries. Indeed at one time, we had more customers in
Japan than the Japanese agent did.
So one might wish to go to the list of agents on the university site,
www.hw.ac.uk, and 'shop around.'
I don't know if you have started the HWU MBA, but I completed my MBA
with HW a few years ago. I didn't enjoy the experience. Basically
they send you a module and then there is absolutely no contact (not
even an e-mail in 2 years) and you turn up to a 100% exam every 6
months. It is a very hard way of studying.
Did you know that 70% of students enrolled (9,000 students in the MBA
program worldwide)in a subject don't actually get to the exam - I guess
they chicken out! Of those that do turn up, 30% fail on average. The
course material is excellent and the exams are tough. I don't however
like the 100% assessment based on one 3-hour exam (closed-book). It
relies a lot on memory rather than understanding. I failed the Finance
subject (not my strong area) because I forgot the formula I needed for
a particular question worth 25%. I had to repeat the subject and sit
the exam 6 months later.
I believe continuous assessment with some proctored exam would be a
better way to go. With a fail rate of 30% average (it was 43% for
Finance the year I failed), you have to be careful, they have a rule
that if you fail the same subject twice, you cannot graduate.
I did learn a lot and the credential is well regarded, probably because
its so tough to pass. But, I wouldn't recommend it. I think there are
plenty of great MBA programs to choose from. I thought I had
researched well enough, but sometimes you don't really know until you
start! I hope that my comments are useful to you,