Two leading business schools have created an innovative, part-time joint MBA programme which promises a unique international experience for working professionals in the Middle East, and student support provided through a team based in Dubai, UAE.

US-based Kelley School of Business, a world-leader in the delivery of online MBAs, and Alliance Manchester Business School, an elite global business school with six centres around the world including Dubai, offer a combined legacy of nearly 150 years of innovation in business and management education, said a statement.

Graduates of the new joint Kelley-Manchester Global MBA will be awarded an MBA degree by each school’s home university – Indiana University, US, and The University of Manchester, UK, it said.

The first MBA intake for students based in the Middle East will take place in July, it added.
 
The new two-year part-time Kelley-Manchester Global MBA offers students flexibility, from the top online MBA programme in the US and a global school with international centres in the key regional business cities around the world.  

Together, the two schools will provide students with professional development and exposure to global business that will help enable them to succeed in today’s increasingly complex and interconnected business world.

The same faculty teaching on both schools’ highly regarded graduate programmes will teach courses on the Kelley-Manchester Global MBA degree programme. Students will also receive personalised mentoring and feedback from career coaches, advisors and professors, and access to the global alumni networks of both business schools.

Randa Bessiso, director – Middle East, The University of Manchester, said: “This exciting international partnership will provide experienced working professionals in the Middle East with an innovative and high quality MBA option with some unique dimensions.”

“The joint MBA offers collaborative teaching from two top-ranked schools, and experience of British and US-style business and management education combining some of the world’s best online and face–to–face teaching at residential workshops in the US and around the world,” she said.

“Our very experienced Middle East Centre team will support students as they pursue their challenging MBA and global business career goals, whilst continuing to work full–time. It concludes with the award of two prestigious MBA degrees,” she added.
 
Bessiso added that together with Kelley School of Business, The University of Manchester is continuing to build on its history of delivering world-class research-led business education through innovative programmes.

The University of Manchester is a trans-national education provide with a long tradition of global business education and centres in Manchester, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, São Paulo and Dubai, which is the largest and fastest growing of the six centre and where it has supported over 2,200 part-time MBA students and graduated over 1,100 MBAs since 2006.

In 1999, the Kelley Direct programme became the first online MBA offered by a top-ranked business school. Today, it consistently ranks No. 1 or No. 2 among online graduate programmes and serves as a model for similar programmes, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service