Hi everyone, I’m Mark, currently studying my MBA at Newcastle University Business School.
I previously studied a postgraduate degree in the field of structural engineering, so this MBA is actually my second Masters. Before starting my MBA, I built up 6+ years of experience in several mammoth infrastructure projects of the public and private sector in India.
Why an MBA now?
My career growth in engineering encompassed several unique projects, which led to my roles & responsibilities taking a paradigm shift towards developing business models, creating procedures to curtail substandard construction and much more. I was delighted that these career assignments allowed me the opportunity to serve a greater purpose, but I felt at the same time that I needed reinforcement in the field of management. This instigated my desire to study an MBA at a premier institution.
The opportunity to transform
One popular notion is that an MBA is primarily undertaken to multiply your earning potential, but additionally I strongly believe that an MBA is one of the most transformative programmes available and one which every professional interested in significantly developing their business career should consider.
In simple terms, an MBA is one of the few Master’s programmes, if not the only Masters, where several cross disciplines are explored within one programme. As I am an ardent believer in analysing any event from multiple perspectives, this distinctive quality of the programme strongly attracted me towards the MBA. I knew that deciding to study for an MBA is something I would do only once in my lifetime, therefore I wanted to be spot on in my decision making, taking into account all the key factors including ever-present uncertainties like the global pandemic.
When I first joined the MBA programme, my primary area of interest was Strategy, Finance and Organisation behaviour. Since then, I’ve added Project Management to my areas of interest: studying this subject at MBA level has broken down one of my notions that Project Management is ‘too traditional’… I now understand the impact of Agile Project Management in the near future (definitely not a rigid framework!). As I am relatively new to the programme, currently in Semester One, I am sure that my areas of interest have the potential to diversify even further!
Globally renowned accreditation
I was very sure that I wanted to study for my MBA at a triple-accredited University, as only a handful of the Universities in the globe are triple-accredited (carrying AMBA, EQUIS & AACSB accreditation). In addition to the accreditation, I learned that the curriculum and modules for triple-accredited programmes are fundamentally provided by the accrediting bodies, therefore there is not much disparity between the programmes/modules offered by triple-accredited institutions. With this in mind, my next step was to start researching more deeply into the teaching faculties at the different Universities and analysing the citation index, peer-reviewed Journal publications and academic publications.
Excellent Teaching Faculty
My subsequent research focused on delving into the academic profiles of the faculty members and the methods in which the MBA programmes were delivered. From this, I learned that most of the faculty members at Newcastle have an excellent number of citations and additionally two faculty members are the authors of flagship textbooks: – Andrea Whittle co-authored “Strategy Theory and Practice” and Simon Parry co-authored “Accounting and Finance for Managers” – which are followed by almost all B-Schools in the world. Therefore, I came to know that I would have the opportunity to learn from eminent academicians.
Quality of life
Although I didn’t have any direct links with alumni before making my decision, several friends and family members in the UK suggested that Newcastle is a place where the cost of living is quite low but without a reduction in the quality of life. As I was well aware that during my one year programme, I needed to keep my living costs to a minimum, this acted as a catalyst in choosing Newcastle as it meant I would get a quality education and a good quality of life (since Newcastle is a compact city, everything is accessible within a 1 mile radius and definitely not crowded) without having to make any steep compromises.
Scholarship and recognition of achievement
My final segment of research concentrated on my funding options, since taking this break from my professional career and returning to full time student life entailed a significant change to my personal cash flow.
I was pleased to discover that Newcastle University Business School offers attractive scholarship opportunities for students, and I am one of the proud recipients of one such scholarship known as the “MBA Leadership Scholarship”. This award showed me that NUBS is serious about recognising strong career progression and substantial leadership experience and achievements in MBA candidates from different parts of the world.
Final thoughts
I firmly believe that I have made an excellent decision in joining NUBS for my MBA despite the impact of Covid-19. It was very important that my decision was a precise one, and the extensive research I conducted provided clarity for me to make a firm decision.
If you intend to explore an MBA, NUBS is one of the best places to do it !!
Read more of my MBA Perspectives