CNN.com - Timing a big issue for young execs

In business education, as in politics, timing is everything.

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FT's Executive MBA Rankings
1. Wharton, U.S.
2. Hong Kong UST, China
3. London Business School, UK
4. Instituto de Empresa, Spain
5. Fuqua, Duke, U.S.
6. Chicago GSB, U.S.
7. Columbia, U.S.
8. Kellogg, U.S.
9. Stern, NY, U.S.
10. Cass, City University, UK
Source: Financial Times 2006

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EMBA SNAPSHOT

Executives taking the top EMBA courses in the U.S., Europe and Asia have average salaries of around $130,000 to $200,000.

A typical EMBA student is likely to be aged in the early 30s, with 6-10 years of working experience.

A top EMBA course can cost $100,000. Customized courses start at a few thousand dollars.

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(CNN) -- The prospect of putting a promising career on hold and heading back to school for two years makes many young executives shy away from MBA degrees, but some business schools are offering alternatives.

Since its inception, the classic MBA has required a two-year, full-time commitment from students. Built around intensive tuition, study and project work, the degree's format doesn't lend itself to being combined with a working life. Students are usually forced to request extended leave from their companies or undertake study prior to entering the full-time workforce.

Although many business schools created executive MBA courses designed to allow senior business people to combine study with work, this does not address the problems of less experienced business people.

With this challenge in mind, some business schools have re-engineered the classic MBA degree, reducing the time required to attain it. By slicing as much as 12 months off the schedule, they believe it opens opportunities for larger numbers of prospective students.

Leading the trend has been European business school INSEAD, which offers a 12-month intensive MBA degree course from its campus near Paris, France.

By reducing the length of breaks between terms and encouraging students to take on extra projects in their spare time, the school believes it is able to deliver a course comparable in content to the two-year versions.

"Our course is much more intensive than those which take two years to complete," says INSEAD MBA program dean Antonio Fatas.

Sacrifices

Because students are expected to put in far longer hours to complete a 12-month course, Fatas recognizes that many will find it necessary to make sacrifices in other areas.

"Some of this comes at the expense of student clubs and social activities," he says. "But the payback is that you are saving a year which can make it a much more effective return on investment."

In the United States, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has also acknowledged the demand for shorter, more intensive MBA courses aimed at those setting out in their business careers.

Alongside its two-year MBA course, the school offers a one-year accelerated MBA program. Kellogg positions the course as being designed for those "with clear and consistent career goals" who are keen to complete their studies and return to the workforce as quickly as possible.

Each year between 70 and 80 students are accepted into the one-year MBA course. Initially students take a series of intense subjects designed to build on the knowledge attained in previous undergraduate studies. Later in the year, they join students completing the second year of the two-year MBA course and undertake the remainder of their required subjects.

For the 2005/06 academic year, the tuition cost for the two-year MBA course at Kellogg was $38,844 per year with costs for the one-year course set at $51,792.

Meanwhile the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business has taken a different approach to the challenge of reducing the time commitments needed to complete an MBA.

Just as EMBA courses do for senior managers, the school's Evening MBA and Weekend MBA programs allow more junior business people to continue to work while still covering the content offered in full-time courses.

Classes are taught by the same faculty members as the full-time courses and the specially designed framework allows students to create a study timetable that fits with their day-to-day working commitments.

The tuition costs for both the evening and weekend MBA degree programs is $3,880 per course. Students are required to complete a total of 20 courses to earn their degree.

If a student opted to undertake two courses per quarter, a degree could be attained in two-and-a-half years; however most participants take three years to complete their studies.

Timing a big issue for young execs

Career might have to be put on hold for two years

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