MBA BLOG
MODULAR MBA
Modular MBA in Malaysia at KPJ Healthcare University College
Probably you are transferred to this webpage since you Google-searched for and are interested to know more about Modular MBA as opposed to more traditional MBA.
Bad (or good) news is, there is no one hard and standard definition of Modular MBA. Maybe we should first understand what is “non-Modular MBA” as offered by majority of universities worldwide.
In very general terms, an MBA is offered following a 14-week Semester system – in the Western universities are called Fall/Autumn Semester (14 weeks), Winter/Spring Semester (14 weeks) and many also offer additional, short Summer Semester (7 weeks). This system has been practiced for over 200 years and essentially to cater for full time students and later applied to part time students. Full time students are expected to study 12-18 credit units per Semester, i.e. 4 to 6 subjects whereas part time students 9 credit units, i.e. 3 subjects per Semester. Full time students should be able to complete their MBA in 1 or 2 years and it is quite common for part time MBA in 2 years. Students will attend lectures for each subject they register in a particular Semester every week for 14 weeks.
Modular MBA is more common in Europe and meant for part time working students. In general, students would come to campus twice a Semester. First session, at the beginning of each Semester, for 2 weeks or 10 days of classes and second session, at the end of the Semester, for another 10 days of classes. If we were to add all, then it would be 20 days a Semester, 40 days a year, or 80 days for 2 years for the entire MBA programme. Mind that this is just an example. In reality there are many different ways of how Modular MBA is implemented.
MBA in Healthcare Management at KPJ Healthcare University College follows somewhat similar approach. However, since it is less common for employers in Malaysia to allow their executives or managers to take long study breaks, we convert the 10 straight weekdays into 5 alternate weekends. Effectively it is still 10 days in total. This means in each Semester students would need to attend 10 alternate weekend classes for each session. Again, if we were to add all, then it would be 20 days a Semester, 40 days a year, or 80 days for 2 years for the entire MBA programme.
Since we only offer part time MBA, and we admit only working students with at least 3 years of prior work experience, we believe that this approach is most suitable for working students in Malaysia. To cater for senior managers who may be too busy with work commitment, we allow students to expand their Modular MBA programme to 4 years (instead of 2 years) by attending only 10 weekends of classes a year.
Since our Modular MBA is positioned as MQA-accredited, professional training programme, our students would be focusing on only 1 subject in any given weekend. And we also allow the public to attend any of the 2-day Modular MBA training they like and later, if they so decide to formally register as MBA student, to use the training they have already attended and passed as part of the requirements for their MBA. This approach is more commonly known as Micro-credentials by MQA.
Not only that this approach to MBA Modular would be appealing to busy executives, managers, and healthcare professionals to register as students, but it would also be more attractive for experienced managers and professionals to be engaged as lecturers. Instead of coming and teaching every week for 14 weeks per subject, now they need to come and teach only in 2 weekends.
That is how flexible our MBA is. Never compromise on quality but very flexible in delivery. And yes, this MBA in Healthcare Management is accredited by Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).
Interested to know more about Modular MBA?