The good news is that the financial outlay and time for postgraduate study in business administration is worth it. According to United States-based Management Admissions Council, a non-profit education organisation on graduate management information, companies plan to increase their graduate business student hires by 18 per cent.
According to the council's Corporate Recruiters Survey 2007 report, the average expected starting annual salary of graduate business students has exceeded that of other graduate school students by 27 per cent and that of undergraduate or first university students by 76 per cent.
But in a burgeoning field of MBAs, executive MBAs and doctorates in business administration (DBAs), it is increasingly difficult for people to decide where and what to study.
Experts at Richard Ivey School of Business and U21Global said just looking at the rankings of business schools was not enough. The decision had to be an entirely personal one based on the best course to suit that individual.
Wing Lam, the dean of information technology programmes and director of pedagogy at U21Global, which provides online programmes in conjunction with 20 universities worldwide, said: 'The standard answer is the course that suits you best. Do I want to be lectured at, or do lots of case studies?
'The choice of programme is very personal. One should not rely on rankings, they are to sell newspapers. I've never seen a list with the same rankings.'
Dr Lam said that potential students should talk to faculty members, and use the network of graduates to find the benefits of the course.
