One Year MBA vs. Two Year MBA: Looking at Singapore

There are many advantages of pursuing your MBA from a university abroad. Not only do the best universities offer a truly excellent MBA program, the opportunities open to mid-level professionals is phenomenal. An MBA from abroad adds the much needed global exposure to a professionals profile, opens up a wider network to interface with and also brings him/her in contact with the best global practices. The diversity, innovative pedagogy and practical learning approach all adds to the boost your career gets after pursuing an MBA from abroad.

This however, brings in tow the concern of taking out 2 years from your career. With competition at its extreme, taking out two years to enhance your career can often lead to a greater risk. Adding to that is the twin costs of taking up an MBA abroad. One of the obvious high tuition fees and the other of the foregone income for that tenure. These concerns, however, have a solution and many applicants from around the world look at 1 year full time MBA programs as a plausible alternative.  And this is where Singapore brings a whole lot of excellent options and opportunities.

Singapore, the island country, is an excellent alternative to your international MBA aspirations. Not only does it offer you the best programs, most of them are less than a year and a half old. Unlike the Executive Programs, these are full time MBA programs. However, because they are one year programs and in fact some of them are amongst the top MBA programs of the world, the entry into these programs is rather competitive. Also, these also usually have a higher work experience requirement. This, again, might vary from university to university but averages at about 4 years for the top few.

Here’s a look at some of the top colleges in Singapore that offer a 1 year or 16 month duration Full Time MBA.

The list has some of the Top Universities of Singapore as well as some lesser known universities. INSEAD's MBA program, for instance, is among the very top of the global list. Simillarly, Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore are among the top 10 universities in Asia and draw the best of students from across teh world. Some of these colleges also have a flexible curriculum, meaning, a student can opt for a part time module and complete the course in about 18 months instead of 12 months.

If, instead, you still believe that a 2 year MBA is what you need, there are options in Singapore still. In fact, many International Universities of repute that have campuses in Singapore, still follow their native programs. For instance, Chicago Booth’s Full Time MBA is a two year course and is available in Singapore.

All the best!