The business school at Bradford is currently doing well in the FT and the Economist rankings. Comparatively, Nottingham has slid down the rankings in the last few years.

Even then, if I had to choose between the two, I would go with Nottingham because of its worldwide presence, reputation of the university (among top 100 of the world) and the course content of the program. Bradford somehow does not tip the scales for me just because it is ranked higher. I am not sure if many people know about Bradford outside the UK, whereas, Notts have a great presence and get students even from North America and Canada. Besides the Campus is a beauty! I have an offer from Notts for 2011 MBA, but I still havent decided on it.... LOL

dear asif nazir,
thanks for your comments and info. Congrats on ur offer from nottingham!
i still am not quite convinced of the reasons to choose one of the given unis over the other.

1. y is bradford so high ranked and students r doin so well, if the city sux and bradford's fame isnt all that great? bradford is 90th in FT global top 100, whereas nottingham is not to b seen in that ranking.
besides, I think FT is the only reliable ranking, cuz others at times have weird ways of misplacing unis.

2. y is nottingham not equally high ranked, despite having (as u said) students from the USA & Canada, a beautiful campus and world wide presence? is it their course, faculty, students, recruiting employers, etc.?

3. Arent Post-MBA placement, Job Opportunities, Career Progression, Avg Salary, etc. main criteria for choosing which MBA to study? Where do Bradford and Nottingham stand with regard to these aspects? (considering that the PSW Visa and other aspects of non-EUs studying in the UK are becoming more stringent)

looking forward to replies ...

i will also say nottingham becoz it has good reputation among recruiters......

<blockquote>dear asif nazir,
thanks for your comments and info. Congrats on ur offer from nottingham!
i still am not quite convinced of the reasons to choose one of the given unis over the other.

1. y is bradford so high ranked and students r doin so well, if the city sux and bradford's fame isnt all that great? bradford is 90th in FT global top 100, whereas nottingham is not to b seen in that ranking.
besides, I think FT is the only reliable ranking, cuz others at times have weird ways of misplacing unis.

2. y is nottingham not equally high ranked, despite having (as u said) students from the USA & Canada, a beautiful campus and world wide presence? is it their course, faculty, students, recruiting employers, etc.?

3. Arent Post-MBA placement, Job Opportunities, Career Progression, Avg Salary, etc. main criteria for choosing which MBA to study? Where do Bradford and Nottingham stand with regard to these aspects? (considering that the PSW Visa and other aspects of non-EUs studying in the UK are becoming more stringent)

looking forward to replies ...</blockquote>


Hi ashes, as far as the previous post is concerned, I had expressed my personal opinion. See ( If I had to choose.......)

For me rankings are just a reference point. I dont believe in them religiously, whether FT or Economist. A double accredited program (Bradford as well as Nottingham), will not get accreditation for nothing. There has to be serious credibility to get accredited. I was also talking about reputation of the university (and that does not mean FT ranking). Nottingham to me is a brand.

Rest about so many of your questions, I bet you will not get any concrete answers to these because there aren't any. There is not much of a separation between tier 2 and tier 3 of UK universities (I can throw in Leeds and Strathclyde in this debate as well).

At the end of the day, choose a program that suits you, in a city of your prime preference. It all depends on how much value the program adds to you and what you bring to the table. When recruiters look at you, they consider the university, but they dont analyze the performance of the university under a microscope and check which MBA similar program ranks ahead. They look at the complete package. A layman's answer to your questions would be: "choose Oxbridge".

<blockquote>dear asif nazir,
thanks for your comments and info. Congrats on ur offer from nottingham!
i still am not quite convinced of the reasons to choose one of the given unis over the other.

1. y is bradford so high ranked and students r doin so well, if the city sux and bradford's fame isnt all that great? bradford is 90th in FT global top 100, whereas nottingham is not to b seen in that ranking.
besides, I think FT is the only reliable ranking, cuz others at times have weird ways of misplacing unis.

2. y is nottingham not equally high ranked, despite having (as u said) students from the USA & Canada, a beautiful campus and world wide presence? is it their course, faculty, students, recruiting employers, etc.?

3. Arent Post-MBA placement, Job Opportunities, Career Progression, Avg Salary, etc. main criteria for choosing which MBA to study? Where do Bradford and Nottingham stand with regard to these aspects? (considering that the PSW Visa and other aspects of non-EUs studying in the UK are becoming more stringent)

looking forward to replies ...</blockquote>
Hi Ash,
Being a Bradford MBA Graduate and living in UK since past 3 years i can say that Bradford would be a better option for certain reasons :
1. Bradford is among the first 5 universities to offer MBA in the UK along with Cranfield , LBS etc
2. Some of the Professors at Bradford are globally known and offer consultancy services to top MNCs like Toyota, Ford, Dell etc (i.e. well connected with the industry )
3. Very Strong Alumni Network across the Europe (most of them are at middle or top managerial level) which helps current students to get some good references.
4. Wide range of electives to choose from,
5. Bradford University School of Management is ranked 9th in the UK (FT Ranking)
6. Although the job market is not that promising in UK, but i have not seen any Bradford Graduate with a starting pay scale of less than 30K ( that means either no job or highly paid job )
some of my batch mates were employed with a start of 36-40K whereas some went back to India.
Since Bradford MBA was among the 10 UK B-Schools which were in HSMP list, therefore i believe it will be a safer bet to go for Bradford then Nottingham.
(HSMP list was the list of MBA programs which automatically enables students for unconditional work permit, when there was no PSW. so if in future UK government comes up with any similar rule then they may only consider same MBA programs which were there in HSMP list)
check this link for more detail
http://www.skillclear.co.uk/hsmp-mba-provision.asp

Since i know more about Bradford then Nottingham therefore my opinion may sound biased :)

hi and thanks for your elaborate response!

ur answer sounds more genuine than biased. but yeah, what exactly (pros and cons) do you know about nottingham MBA / Uni?

and yeah, nottingham offer we're actually still awaiting? bradford and sheffield r cleared. so, where does sheffield stand, in your opinion? nottingham vs sheffield? bradford vs sheffield?

Bradford is head and shoulders above Nottingham as a business school and as an MBA programme. Nottingham is very pretty but, at the end of the day, you'll be spending your MBA year indoors not in Sherwood Forest. Bradford has much better electives for your two areas of concentration.

For technology consulting, the Bradford programme in Perugia would be ideal http://www.brad.ac.uk/management/programmes/mba/perugiamba/study/

<blockquote>Bradford is head and shoulders above Nottingham as a business school and as an MBA programme. Nottingham is very pretty but, at the end of the day, you'll be spending your MBA year indoors not in Sherwood Forest. Bradford has much better electives for your two areas of concentration.

For technology consulting, the Bradford programme in Perugia would be ideal http://www.brad.ac.uk/management/programmes/mba/perugiamba/study/</blockquote>

Dear Duncan,

Thanks for your response. I totally agree with you that we wont have much time to hang out as we'll be busy with classes & assignments. however, the Perugia MBA is not an option for us. It has to be the FT MBA at Bradford, with the basic core modules and 5 electives, as given online. We both have received the offer letter.

Then again, i found sufficient options related to marketing and communications. however, with focus on Management Consultancy and Information Systems, i found only e-commerce to be a suitable elective and nothing else. Could you kindly shed more light on that? what are some of the good course options in that field?

we'll be studying at Bradford Uni as a married couple. we'll both be doing the full-time MBA, but with different electives / specialization.

How good / bad / ugly is the social life there really? i've heard a lot about being a dull city, racial discrimination, unemployment, less options to work / hang out / socialize, high crime rate, etc.

Does someone know about the actual scene there? i would really like to visit a couple of rock concerts and the like during the course of that 1 year.

thanks.

Indeed, the Perugia course is just a pipedream, but a nice one.

Before my MBA I did a masters in business computing and, on the basis of what IT consultants were taught there, I think the electives in ebusiness, intellectual property, change management, product innovation and project management will be very useful.