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Elaine Aherne, Head of Student Recruitment, UCD College of Business Smurfit School

The globally ranked UCD Smurfit School MBA programmes provide an opportunity for ambitious individuals to unlock and develop their leadership potential, accelerate career advancement and build their global networks. In addition, the latest Financial Times rankings have found that graduates of the part-time Executive MBA programme enjoy earnings growth of 68 per cent within three years.

People tend to have slightly different reasons for taking the full-time and part-time MBA programmes, according to Elaine Aherne, head of Student Recruitment for UCD College of Business.

“People do the full-time course because they might want to pivot out of their current career and into a different one,” she says. “They may want to move into more of an operational role and get into the business side of the organisation. For example, we have physiotherapists and vets doing MBAs. They are really capable people at what they do but they are looking to get into the business side of healthcare or animal health. They want to progress to management and leadership roles.”

Others may want to build on particular qualifications. “They might have done an undergraduate degree in a particular area like computer science or engineering and now want to move into consultancy roles. We also have nurses with three to five years’ experience who want to get into healthcare consultancy.”

The EMBA tends to attract a slightly different cohort. “They may be quite happy in their current role but might have gone for a promotion and been disappointed,” Aherne explains. “They want to demonstrate their ambition, hone their leadership skills and deepen their business knowledge. They may not be considering moving employer, but they want to make a leap forward with their current employer. They want to be ready when a new role comes up in the organisation.”

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This article first appeared in the Irish Times on November 2nd, 2023

To learn more about the MBA and attend the upcoming Open Evening on November 15th go to events.smurfitschool.ie