Master of Business Administration

Dhurata Stenaj - Marketing Officer 00:04
Thank you for joining us for today's webinar where we will be going through the UTS Business Schools, Master of Business Administration. James, would you be able to talk us through the different ways students can structure their course?

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 00:19
Definitely Dhurata. So, in terms of the courses that we offer in Business Administration, we have a suite of three different courses. And essentially, they build off each other. Right. So, I think there are we've got the slide where we show that the three different options in terms of the courses there we go. So, what we basically, essentially, these courses provide you flexibility in terms of how much you want to commit to this, you know, so you might be a little bit unsure, you might study for a while, or you don't know exactly what's entailed in the Master of Business Administration. So, you might want to commit to a two-year full-time program or four years part time.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 01:06
So, we offer what's called a "Graduate Certificate in Business Administration", which is comprised of four subjects, which go through the general fundamental concepts that we students need to know when they're looking to progress to more senior positions in the organisation. And those four subjects are embedded in our MBA program, which is the two-year six thing subject program that is shown there on the screen. So, if you've done the four subjects as part of the Graduate Certificate in Business Administration, you can then progress to the Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. So those four subjects essentially count towards the Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. So, to complete that diploma, you only need to complete another four subjects, and then you've already got the diploma. Now, if you want to do the whole lot, then of course, the Master of Business Administration is for you. And that is a 16-subject program across two years full time, or four years, part time. Now, if you're an international student, obviously, whether or not you can do it part time is determined by your visa. And if you have any questions on that, please let us know. The important thing as I said before, as some of you may not want to commit upfront to doing the two-year full-time program, so you can start off with the graduate certificate, do four subjects. You get a certificate from that you get recognition from that, and then you can decide whether or not you want to progress and do more subjects and build up to the Master of Business Administration.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 02:43
Now, one thing to also note, because some of you might be going, "Well, is there any way if I want to do the Masters of Business Administration, can I reduce the amount of time that it takes to complete? and we have a recognition of prior learning process?", so if you think that there are subjects courses, maybe you've done at UTS, or elsewhere that may be considered for recognition of prior learning, get in touch with us, and we can talk about that with you.

Dhurata Stenaj - Marketing Officer 03:13
Thank you so much for that. So, you mentioned the core subjects give you the foundation in Business Understanding. Actually, we will look at the course structure, if you want to, this is basically the course structure. Would you like to take us through the course structure as well?

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 03:28
Definitely. So basically, how the cost structure works is that we have six core subjects that you need to do in the MBA program. So, all students do these subjects. And these subjects are specifically tailored for students doing our MBA program or the related program that is the Graduate Diploma, or the graduate certificate that I mentioned before. And so only MBA students are doing these subjects. And this allows you time to meet your fellow cohort, to get to know them, to network with them, to work on different projects, and activities with them in the classroom.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 04:08
What these subjects essentially provide you with is the foundation and the general knowledge that business professionals need to know. So, if you're looking to progress to more senior levels in the organisation, if you're looking to progress to C suite type positions in the organisation, for example, Chief Information Officer or Chief Operating Officer, these provide a fundamental overall general understanding of key business areas.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 04:37
Right and we'll go through the subjects shortly that comprise these six core subjects. There are five that you do at the start of your MBA program. And those five primarily provide the basis if you do the certificate or the diploma, which is the subjects that the provide the basis of those programs because there's a lot less subjects in those programs. But if we just go back to the previous slide, in terms of the options after you do these core subjects. So, if we're could just, yep there we go. We have a lot of flexibility, right in terms of what you can choose. And this is one of the unique attributes of our program. Right, so as far as we know, this is probably the only program available in the Oceania region, where you have so many different choices in terms of majors and sub majors you can do.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 05:34
So, one of the comments people often make about MBA programs is there's a fixed structure. And there's certain subjects you do, and there's not a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can specialise in. Our program is very different. It gives you that general knowledge that is expected in organisations to progress and understand and make more comprehensive decisions. But it also allows you to specialise in areas that you want to specialise in, to further your career and your opportunities. So, for example, out of the 16 subjects that you need to do to complete your MBA, obviously, you do the six core subjects, which every student in the NBA does and then you can progress and you can do a major, right? So, you can specialise in Marketing, or Accounting or Management, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, there's a whole set of options and then you could do a sub major as well, or electives. And these are electives you can take throughout UTS, right. So, they're not restricted to the UTS Business School only. So, you could do electives in the Law Faculty, or if you want to learn more about communications, or IT, you could choose electives in those areas. So, there's a lot of flexibility here.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 06:52
Now, say you don't want to commit to doing a whole major and you want to get a broader understanding of a number of areas, then you could do two sub majors. So, we've had students, for example, that are operating their own organisation, and they want to know a little bit more about strategic management, but also supply chain side of things. So, they do two different sub majors related to those areas so they get a good understanding of both to help them progress. And then of course, you can put your electives to the balance of the 16 subjects in our program.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 07:31
So, in terms of our rank, we're quite highly ranked in the QS ranks and one reason for that is because our programs are very flexible, and meets the needs of our students. In terms of the core subjects, there are five core subjects that you do at the start of your MBA program. In terms of revising our MBA program, we knew that there were going to be dramatic changes in business, there have been dramatic changes in business for some time. So, we introduced this subject that really allow students to think quite deeply in terms of business, how business is changing how to be a global citizen, how to think more holistically about the implications of business decisions, and where business is moving in the future, right? And a lot of students have given us feedback on this saying this subject has really shifted their thinking in terms of how they think about decisions, processes, activities, and what their organisation does moving forward.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 08:39
The other core subjects really help you with decision making, right. So, progressing to more senior positions in organisations, decision making is obviously key, particularly if you want to progress to those C suite positions so Chief Information Officer, Chief Operating Officer etcetera, right. So, when we look at, say, understanding accounting and financial reports, this is not about how to necessarily record accounting information. This is specifically about how to comprehend that information, make the best decisions using that information, and move forward accordingly. And the other core subjects we have here Economic Management, Marketing Decision Making, and Financial Management, follow that model, right. So, they're there to help you use information in these areas and be aware of what happens in these areas to make more effective decisions in business. So, it's very important and it's why these subjects are compulsory subjects that you go through all these because it allows you to get a much more holistic understanding and make better decisions in business moving forward.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 09:51
The last subject down the bottom called Strategic Management, you do at the end of your MBA program. Now what this allows you to do after you go through your co, you know, with your fellow students, you start the MBA, you go through the five subjects, you then go off into your majors or sub majors, elective subjects, which are very diverse. And we have students that do a large you know, very diverse set of different majors, right. So, when I look at all the students that are studying with us, there's no dominant major that they choose, there is certainly a diverse selection of majors that students undertake based on what they're interested in and what they want to do to progress their careers. We then bring you all back together in Strategic Management at the end of your MBA program and we have conversations, we address issues, problems, challenges in the workplace, you work together with your fellow MBA students, to bring the whole program back together, how to combine all those different level all those different expertise in terms of different discipline areas to solve problems together, which is what happens in practice, right? People come together with different expertise, different qualifications, different backgrounds, to achieve a common goal to further the organisation's objectives, right. So that's what Strategic Management is about, in terms of if you're doing the graduate certificate, or the graduate diploma, your focus will be for the graduate certificate, obviously, four of these five subjects. Alright, so you'll do the first four there, you won't do Financial Management, and then if you do the diploma, you'll add on the Financial Management subject as well. And then that obviously gives you the basis if you move into the MBA program, you've done those core subjects, you go into your majors, you submerge your electives, and then you come back to the strategic management subject where everyone comes back together.

Dhurata Stenaj - Marketing Officer 11:58
Excellent. Thank you, James. So, I guess I've got a question to you then, "Why would someone pick a major compared to a sub major? And what's the benefit of one versus the other?",

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 12:10
Yeah, that's a very good question. It depends on what you want to do. Moving forward, right. Now, some students are looking to specialise in an area. So, we have students that come from a variety of different backgrounds, right. So, some students will come from, we've had students who have come from engineering backgrounds that done an engineering degree that worked in engineering practice for some time. They can possibly come from a medical background, so I've had doctors within the program that have studied with us. And they're moving into positions where they need to make marketing decisions, or they need to deal with challenges relating to Supply Chain Management. And for them, it makes sense in those cases, to specialise in a specific major, so they're upskill in that area. So, they've got significant responsibilities, they've been promoted to a level where they need to make strategic decisions and so they really want to upskill in that particular area.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 13:16
We've had other students that have come into the program that want to change the direction of their career. So, for example, they want to move into Accounting, right? and they want to become a professional accountant. And they want to get their accounting qualification, whether that's chartered becoming a chartered accountant, or their CPA qualification. And so, they choose the Professional Accounting major to do that, right, which provides the prerequisite for moving into that professional accounting qualification.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 13:50
Other students, as I mentioned, have a variety of responsibilities or different interest areas they want to bring together, for example, they might be dealing with how to better think through and manage the social responsibility element of their business, how to address sustainability concerns, but also deal with supply chain concerns, right. So they take different sub majors and electives in order to bring them that expertise so that they can put that into action in their organisation.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 14:25
So, in terms of which is better, it really depends on where you're going with your career and what you want to do moving forward. But in saying that with these, there are a lot of different decisions, right in terms of what you can take, and some of you might look at this and go "Well, I'm not quite sure at the moment. What I want to do I know I want to do an MBA. I know it's going to be important to get me ahead to open up a lot of opportunities and doors in my career. But I don't exactly know which majors I want to do", and that is fine. And if you're doing the MBA program with us, we don't make you commit to your major choices or sub majors and electives when you start with us. So, you'll do the first session if you're studying full time and those subjects generally will be your core subjects that you'll have to do. And they'll give you insight in terms of the different discipline areas that these majors are related to and then you can make a more informed choice in terms of what you want to do after you've moved through that first session. This is also an advantage if you're doing the graduate certificate or graduate diploma, that you again, get the exposure through the core subjects and you might go well, "I want to specialise more in these areas, and I'm going to take on the MBA program to then specialise in those particular areas". But coming back to what you learn through our majors, all our majors are either as Dhurata, as already mentioned, professionally accredited, or they've been developed in consultation with industry, right? So UTS is obviously right in the heart of Sydney, our central business district. And so, we have really close connections with industry. And we have conversations with industry, we work with industry and different projects. We help industry, industry helps us understand what's happening, and so we can design our courses in a way that are current and relevant to our times and relevant in terms of moving forward with the future and what will change in the future.

Dr. James Wakefield - Director of MBA Program 16:40
All right, so that's one of the key things to also keep in mind. So, we have for example with our Project Management offerings. These are accredited by Project Management International. As we've mentioned, our professional accounting offering is accredited by charter Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and CPA and a number of other specific majors are professionally accredited. And what that basically means, if you're not sure you know what the advantage is there is, because it's professionally accredited, it means that you can move into professional membership or you meet the requirements to undertake say diplomas or further study offered by those professional organisations to get membership by doing our, our majors or sub majors with us.

Dhurata Stenaj - Marketing Officer 17:36
Thank you so much James. That was really thorough and has given everyone a really clear idea about the MBA program.