I don't think this would be a comparable choice.

Hi Duncan,

I have gone through your profile and have also read many of your posts on this board, therefore need your suggestion.

At this stage, I am pretty confused in terms of selecting one of the best full time MBA programs in Australia, 1. AGSM at UNSW; 2. University of Queensland and 3. Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Please ignore University of Melbourne).

The reason of my confusion is due to different rankings on various sources like "Global MBA Ranking FT.com", "The Economist - MBA", ?Forbes International MBA Ranking?, ?Boss Ranking?, ?QS Global 200?, ?THE World University Rankings 2013?2014?, ?Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013?, ?QS World University Rankings 2013/14? and it continues forever, which is confusing me.

What I am looking for, is to pursue the best full time MBA program (either 12 or 16 months) and wish to find employment in Australia after completing my degree.

I have 8 years of tremendous learning and leading experience in terms of Sales and Marketing in the South East Asian tourism and hospitality industry and have traveled to more than 30 countries for business expansion. I am looking for an industry change.

If you look in a broad prospective, then there are two major difference in the mentioned universities:
1. Course Duration: AGSM is a 16 months course, whereas University of Queensland and Macquarie is a 12 months course.
2. Location: AGSM and Macquarie is located in Sydney, whereas University of Queensland is located in Brisbane.

Based on the information shared with you about my profile and requirement, will need your best suggestion and comments. Would also appreciate if you can highlight few points regarding the work after study and visa options.

Thanks and highly appreciated.

Regards, Arpit

There are so many general comments available on this site... do you have a specific question? AGSM and Melbourne are clearly the best options for someone aiming for an MBA-type role in Australia.

Thanks for your quick reply, Duncan.

I clearly understand that AGSM should be preferred over University of Queensland. But in such a case, why is AGSM not ranked on "The Economist", whereas University of Queensland is ranked in the top 15 of the world? Even in terms of university wise, University of Queensland is highly ranked thn UNSW.

How about the employment statistics of University of Queensland after the full time MBA? Is it almost the same as AGSM which is around 80% employment within 3 months of graduation? And are job prospects more in Sydney then compared to Brisbane?

Thanks once again.

Regards, Arpit

I don't think you can take The Economist's ranking too seriously. Its methodology favours schools that recruit junior students.

AGSM has not appeared in the ranking for the last three years, and I think Ralph is right that this is simply because they are not taking part in the survey (http://www.find-mba.com/board/22284). AGSM's employment rate is 88% - quite a bit higher than 80%

In terms of academic standing, you have to remember that AGSM has a very different standing, having been a joint school of two universities until recently: Sydney and USNW. These are clearly two of the top four business schools as far as their peers rate them (http://www.eduniversal-ranking.com/business-school-university-ranking-in-australia.html) and UQ is a long way down.

Thanks Duncan.

And how about a quick comparison in terms of employment statistics and job prospects for international students between The University of Queensland and Macquarie Graduate School of Management? Again the choice is between Brisbane and Sydney - however, Macquarie doesn't need a GMAT and Queensland does (in my case). I have gone through this post (http://www.find-mba.com/board/35924), but didn't get a clear picture.

As mentioned earlier, I am looking for an industry change from the tourism and hospitality industry - it can be towards the management consulting field, or also the technology industry.

I am sorry to say but tourism and hospitality does not have a lot of brain in it and it would be very different to consulting and technology which unfortunately require a lot of critical thinking and quantitative nature.

Do you like programming statistics if you dont have the nature of these from young age it is difficult to break into and i have seen a lot of ppl struggling in their roles even after they get in because these are tough competitive and fast pace industries which require a lot of retraining

As far as I can see, UQ doesn't publish its statistics. The Economist ranking is obviously great for UQ, which just enrolled its largest-ever class. If you're making a career change, surely the AGSM course, which follows the traditional four-semester MBA model (sadly compressed, using a project rather than an internship), will be much more credible and better preparation than the UQ programme for most students.

That said: the UQ programme seems to recruit students that are much older and more Australian than AGSM. See these photos, and the flags which appear when you hover over photos: http://mbaprofiles.business.uq.edu.au/year-2013

I understand, and can see 4 out of the 5 profiles are Australians.

I completely understand that AGSB should be the first preference (over UQ), but does this also mean that the UQ program is much better than Macquarie (in terms of ranking and job prospects)?

I think it depends on you and your goals. If you're an Australian staying in the same industry and looking to move up, UQ looks good since its full-time MBAs look like EMBA students. But Macquarie is a real global brand and higher standing as a business school. Its MBA also includes an optional 10-week internship, which is important for students looking to move into Australia or into a new field.

My goal is to move and settle in Australia from Thailand.

I am shocked to read that that Macquarie is higher standing as a business school compared to the UQ. FT doesn't rank both of them, but in other rankings, UQ comes way ahead thn Macquarie:

The Economist:
UQ: 14
Macquarie: 55

Boss Ranking:
UQ: 1
Macquarie: 6

THE World University Rankings 2013?2014
UQ: 63
Macquarie: -

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013
UQ: 85
Macquarie: -

QS World University Rankings 2013/14
UQ: 43
Macquarie: 263

Macquarie does have a plus point as it based in Sydney and also the 10-week internship program as you mentioned. I also got confused when they informed me that they don't need a GMAT in my case (even after being an international student) - why is this so?

Before reading your post, I was quite certain that UQ is much much better thn Macquarie.

I think the THE rankings are pretty serious (Macquarie is ranked, in fact http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking/institution/macquarie-university) but I'm surprised to see how far it has fallen in the last ten years. It looks like I'm wrong about it still having a better standing as a university than UQ (see here for example as well). However, the eduniversal rankings show that its business school is on a much higher level.

Even if we accept that UQ has better outcomes from its MBA, that might be because the students are very different. I think it's worth speaking to international students who have graduated from the programmes to see how the outcomes compare.

In THE World University Rankings 2013?2014, UQ is ranked 63 (3rd in Australia) and Macquarie (12th in Australia) is ranked as 276-300. I am not aware about the scenario before 10 years but presently UQ is highly ranked than Macquarie in almost all rankings.

The students in UQ might have different profiles, but as discussed earlier - most of them are Australians. Will have to connect with international students of both universities to explore more, however after our discussion I certainly come to a conclusion that UQ is much better than Macquarie, and I hope even you agree to this.

Once again, Thanks for your help.

Regards, Arpit

Jumping in here - for somebody who is going to need a work visa after graduation, it might behoove you to contact these schools and see what kind of post-MBA options you'd have after graduation. They might even put you in contact with students with similar backgrounds as you, who have successfully made the transition.

I don't think this would be a comparable choice.

Hi,

Could you please guide which of the MBS/AGSM/ UWA full time intense MBA courses will present best outcomes for a Mechanical engineer who has 13 years of work experience in Automobile and Construction and Mining equipment manufacturing industries. I have worked in Manufacturing/project management/technology transfer and product development areas and currently working as product development manager in an MNC in India. I am looking for operations management or general management roles post MBA. I have Australian PR.

I don't think that UWA is in the same league as AGSM or Melbourne.

Instead of looking at functional roles, why don't you narrow down your search by industry?

These schools are in vastly different places and you'd be using some of the time you're spending there to network, mostly locally. If you're at AGSM you probably won't be able to do much networking with companies that work out of Melbourne and vice-versa.

Which one did you select?

AGSM!

I'm thinking about UWA because I don't think my GMAT score will be good enough for the better schools. Anybody else?