Hello Everyone, has anyone done the Durham MBA? What is your take on the reputation of this MBA?. Please spare me replies on LBS, Oxbridge as they may be better but cost also a fortune. I would be more interested on feedback from actual MBA Durham graduates and people who have insider knowledge about this programme. Your input is much appreciated.

An ex-INSEAD partner at my previous employer said to me there was no point in doing an MBA if it wasn't at a top school. In Europe, these are INSEAD, LBS and IESE. Cranfield, Bocconi, IMD, OXford and Cambridge might be second tier (depending on who you're talking to), but beyond that I'd stay away. Or at least ask yourself what you're paying for - the top places are where the top students go, so get you a great network. They also attract the top recruiters, so it's going to be much harder getting in there if you want to. And if you don't want either of the above, it might be worth asking yourself why you want to do an MBA in the first place?Sorry to not be more helpful; I'm not meaning to be partisan, but if I hadn't got in to LBS I would not have come close to considering Durham.

LBSer - not sure about your analysis there. Met plenty of 690+ GMATers at my school who were utterly useless operators in a professional context. Great on paper, got in to the school of their choice, and then were surprisingly mediocre. I think employers are well aware of this - and therefore flex their criteria more than you suggest

Previous poster is spot on - if you are going to do an MBA then it should be from a top school to be worth anything. A low ranked school will cost you much much more.....e.g. Durham ranks 74th in the FT list. £22K fees, add say £35K for loss of salary so it will cost you £57K and just to be clear....probably be worth close to nothing. That is what I call expensive.Look at the top schools in the FT list. Then consider if the cost is worth it to achieve your objectives. Having an MBA from the 74th best school is not really going to impress anyone even if it is cheaper.

anon,LBSer and jj are oversimplifying a little, but there is a hard grain of truth in what they're saying. The more highly ranked the MBA, the greater the probability of it paying of on an NPV basis as an investment. Even some people who went to schools at the top of the rankings will never see a return on their investment. While it is important to note that there is more to studying for an MBA than just financial return, but you've got to have a pretty damn good reason if the sums don't add up.As far as Durham goes, all I can say is that I've never come across an MBA from there at any of the top two tiers of firms. Not a statistically valid analysis, I grant you, but a useful heuristic.EC

I did my MBA at Durham 13 years ago so my views may be a little out of date. At the time Durham was one of the best business schools (and one of the oldest in the UK) but other others such as Oxford and Cambridge has since surpassed them. Durham will never be able to compete with the bigger schools as Durham finds it relatively hard to attract funding (e.g. the Oxford Said BS can tap up wealthy Arab alumni). The atmosphere is also quite different. Durham encourages teamwork rather than out-and-out competitiveness and I enjoyed my time there. As a result of lower funding and its location Durham will never attract the best researchers and will never be able to invest in its facilities to the same extent as the bigger BSs so will always have a lower overall rank. You should examine the rankings in more detail however. The latest FT rankings show that Durham MBA graduates attract an average 84% increase in salary so it depends what you are looking at. If you want to get into MBBB then skip Durham and head for the targeted business schools instead.

Thank you very much for the feedback. That is much appreciated! (This forum can be a blessing)