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“If it doesn’t have AMBA accreditation, in particular, that might be because the MBA is not as important to it as the other business qualifications it offers.”Interestingly, Professor Anthony Hopwood, dean of the relatively new, but already internationally respected Said Business School at Oxford University says he is not sure Said needs accreditation at all. “Accreditation is important because it is an indication of quality,” argues Professor Howard Thomas, Warwick’s dean. “And students who come to business school, particularly from overseas, tell us they think it is important.”Despite the enthusiasm of some business schools for accreditation, only 38 of the 102 members of the UK Association of Business Schools are AMBA-accredited. While some may instead have EQUIS accreditation, others have no accreditation at all.Jonathan Slack, chief executive of the Association of Business Schools, says that institutions with no accreditation may think their own reputation is enough to attract students or find the whole business of accreditation too costly and time-consuming.”If a school has not been through accreditation, it does not mean the school is not good,” argues Slack.

These triple-kited schools argue that accreditation by UK, European and US-based bodies is important if an institution wants recognition as an international player that draws students from across the globe and equips them to work anywhere.
Warwick Business School was the first of a handful of British institutions to be triple-accredited. So much so that some have gone not just for AMBA accreditation, but for accreditation from both EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) and AACSB (American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business), the dominant kitemark in US graduate business schools. “The unaccredited MBA doesn’t have a future.”

Many business schools seem to agree with Purcell. “The next 10 years will see some business schools close down their MBA programme,” says Purcell. How many different positive integers are factors of 441? a) – 4 b) – 6 c) – 7 d) – 9 e) – 113. If n = 4p, where p is a prime number greater than 2, how many different positive even divisors does n have, including n?a) 2 b) 3 c) 4 d) 6 e) 8 Answers: 1, D; 2, D; 3, C. How much should accreditation and league table rankings figure in the tricky business of selecting the right MBA course? According to Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs (AMBA), accreditation is a crucial factor as the MBA market undergoes major readjustment.

If you do not you will waste half an hour just working out how to answer the questions.”Test run: Three GMAT sample questions1. For which n is the remainder largest when the number 817,380 is divided by n? a) 4 b) 5 c) 6 d) 8 e) 92. But, says Joern Meissner, lecturer in management science at Lancaster University Management School, it is worth thinking long and hard before forking out the, on average, £500 or more needed.”You do need to think about it. But particularly if you are looking to get into a very competitive school it could be worth it,” he says.In Grant’s case, as he applied relatively late and time was tight, he decided that a formal course was a waste of time.”One of the guys on my course did a three-month course over weekends just on GMAT,” he recalls.But he adds: “You do need to spend time, at least a weekend, looking at the books and getting to understand how the questions are put together. Whether there is a perception that it is biased is much harder to address,” she says.All this, of course, is academic to candidates who just want to know how to get a great score. Preparation, it seems, is the key.There are many resources candidates can turn to, like the website mba , run by GMAC, which offers free software.There are also many formal primer courses available. In Grant’s case, for entry to Said, he scored 650.”If someone has scored badly, the odds are that they’ll struggle,” says Peter Calladine, accreditation services manager at the Association of MBAs.