The Technology Source Archives - A Response to "The Difficulty of Getting One's Facts Straight"

March/April 2000 // Letters to the Editor

A Response to "The Difficulty of Getting One's Facts Straight"

Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/) as: Peter Calladine "A Response to "The Difficulty of Getting One's Facts Straight"" The Technology Source, March/April 2000. Available online at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034. The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

First, apologies for the Association of MBAs' (AMBA) Web site being out of date and, therefore, for providing Fred Nickols with incorrect data regarding the number of accredited MBA programs. This has been caused by the site being placed on 'hold' whilst we worked on the launch of the new site. The site should be on-line in the next couple of weeks and will include up to date details on the Association, accreditation, and other aspects of interest to prospective students, members and other stakeholders.

Mr. Nickols is still unclear about the distinction between the Association of Business Schools (ABS) and AMBA. May I clarify the difference? To quote ABS, "The Association of Business Schools (ABS) is the national representative body of one hundred major business and management education providers across UK higher education. ABS members employ more than 7,000 academic staff and contributed to the education of over 250,000 students in 1996/97, with 1 in 8 undergraduate students taking business and management courses". (See http://www.the-abs.org.uk/wel.html) The AMBA, on the other hand, is the professional Association for MBAs (i.e., those with an MBA degree). The AMBA also offers a respected accreditation service for the MBA, unlike ABS. The AMBA also offers additional services to schools that offer accredited programs. These schools represent less than 1/3 of the UK providers, but these schools include around 60% of those studying for an MBA in the UK.

Please note the ABS reference above to undergraduates. Unlike ABS, the Association of MBAs does not represent undergraduate schools or graduates of undergraduate programs. The AMBA provides services to its individual MBA members so as to further promote their careers as professional managers. ABS does not. In some other respects ABS and the Association do pursue similar interests in that we both organize forums and conferences for our respective business schools constituencies.

With regard to the reference to "London's Open University," I was particularly concerned that readers would confuse the long established Open University Business School's (OUBS) distance learning MBA program with the relatively new MBA program offered externally by London University. The OUBS MBA is accredited by the Association of MBAs, the London MBA is not.