US MBAs

Yesterday, in the course of my normal business, I went to interview the CEO of one of the most successful (and largest) technology companies in New Zealand. During the course of conversation we started to talk about our own educational experiences. It turned out that he had earned an MBA in the US around six years ago. His previous experiences of higher education had been in New Zealand and the UK.

He commented on how much he had enjoyed the study-side of his MBA, including the challenge of the program and the chance to apply his professional experience to his classes. He also remarked on how “real” the case studies and the group work had been on his MBA. It was his opinion that the US took professional education very seriously, and was particularly good at combining education and industry experience to create a really effective learning environment for students.