The MBA (Master of Business Administration) represents a special form of post-graduate educations. This is the most common post-graduate degree in the world. The emphasis is shifted to more practical and more real exercises instead of the more theoretical education that is so common in Hungarian universities. Its original task was to provide the students with useful and practical knowledge in the field of international business relations. But is this case the word ‘student’ does not necessarily refer to young people and graduates starting their career but rather to experts in leading positions. In Hungary you can take part in the course both in Hungarian and English language.
Practical tuition vs. theoretical education
Based on our experiences gathered during interviewing those candidates applying for managing positions who have a MBA, EMBA or IMM EMBA degree are more determined, apt and practical than those candidates who only took part in Hungarian higher education (this is only true in general of course and there are always exceptions). It is worth it to choose the MBA education for those who want to acquire general management skills, communicate with managers of similar positions, develop the business relations and improve English language skills (for this one the English language trainings are the most suitable). The main difference between the MBA trainings and the Hungarian higher education is the fact that there are quarterly terms and the preparation is continuous (papers shall be prepared and submitted for the class, one has to prepare for personal and team presentations, vast literature shall be processed, one always has to be ready for expected and unexpected tests and participate in interactive communication during the class). This is very beneficial because the actual learning is not concentrated and limited to the ‘test period’ or to the ‘exam period’ and the information learned by the students probably lasts longer because of the continuous training. It is interesting to know that you do not have to prepare a thesis at the end of the American English educations (for example at the Central European University / CEU), so the students receive their degree after acquiring the prescribed amount of credit.
MBA courses in Hungarian
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics, The Corvinus University of Budapest, the University of Debrecen, the University of Miskolc, the University of Pécs, the University of West Hungary, the University of Szeged and the University of Veszprém offer courses in Hungarian.
MBA courses in English
You find a lot more modest number of offers when it comes to courses in English although according to the experts’ opinion it is lot more worth it to invest into education with foreign language. The Durham MBA is an English language training offered by the Central European University (CEU) and the Corvinus University of Budapest. The training fee starts at around HUF 2-3 million but you can find training for over HUF 10 million if you choose higher requirements. For example the IMM Executive training of the CEU costs HUF 12 million but it is the fourteenth most prestigious business school according to the Financial Times. The price is usually depending on the prestige of the institution, the acknowledgement and reputation of the managers and experts teaching on the courses.
You can participate in executive training (EMBA) in two universities in Hungary that is the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the Central European University (CEU). The target group is a little different from that of a conventional MBA since such senior managers participate in this training that have serious professional and management experiences and have little spare time for learning. The training is built on short, intensive courses and can be finished in even one year.
The application requirements for English language trainings include:
- two BSC or one MSC degree,
- advanced level English language exam (Cambridge, IELTS, TOEFL),
- several years of professional experience
- motivation letter, CV and
- successfully passing the admittance test (so called GMAT),
- professional interview with one of the professors of the school.
MBA as value
At the time being the opinion of the experts is divided about the necessity of the MBA degree but the real need for the MBA degree providing the managers with a comprehensive plus comes more and more to the foreground. The international acknowledgement of the degree surpluses that of a general master degree from several aspects; and according to the feedbacks of our clients the managers with MBA degree are more valuable on the labor market.
Jamniczky Andrea