Very easily. Masters of Business Administration, to give them their full name, are not all equal. There are about 3 000 business schools around the world. Some of their MBAs are excellent, others merely average. Many are worthless, though you won't find any of these in SA. They all meet quality-control standards approved by the national Council on Higher Education (CHE). But there are still big differences between programmes.
Seventeen SA institutions are licensed to offer MBAs. They range from major university business schools like those at Wits and Cape Town to private-sector colleges like Milpark and Henley.
How do you decide which one to attend? In this year's Ranking the MBAs we focus on the issues that influence study decisions - entrance criteria, cost, quality, value and career advancement. Through market research undertaken by Markinor, the FM has interrogated previous MBA graduates, companies and the schools themselves. Unlike previous years, this time we are publishing no overall ranking. Different schools have different strengths. Which one you choose depends on what skills you want to develop. As our responses show, there are huge differences in how graduates judge the value of their courses.
WHAT IT MEANS
 Choose your MBA to suit your ambitions
Many graduates don't get the financial benefit they expected
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We list the top three schools based on scores given by their graduates on a variety of criteria (see page 38). We consider subject area strengths - a crucial consideration for prospective clients. Some schools are strong on quantitative skills, others on HR skills. UCT tops three of the seven subject areas and Potchefstroom two. On whether the MBA delivered what graduates had expected, Gibs tops three of the six question areas.
Do you pay an MBA graduate more?
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But if your reason for doing an MBA is to hit the big time in salary and promotion, then you may be disappointed.
Among general trends to come out of our research is the fact that students have increasingly unrealistic expectations of what their MBA can do for them. As Frank Horwitz, director of UCT's business school, puts it, there is a "persistence of exaggerated expectations".
Nearly 70% of graduates complain their degree has not brought them the expected financial rewards, 59% that other companies have not knocked on their door offering a career change, and 58% that they have not received the promotion they think is their due. Employers don't necessarily agree with these perceptions - they claim to pay most of their MBAs a hefty salary premium (see table alongside).
Graduates and employers also disagree on the effectiveness of some MBA features. Graduates say their MBAs prepare them to be team players. Employers' respond: "Really? Then between leaving the MBA classroom and arriving back at the office, you forgot everything you learnt."
Maybe Wits Business School acting director Mthuli Ncube has the answer. "We probably produce an individual who is overconfident and thinks he knows it all. An MBA is meant to produce confident people. Some overdo it."
There are some areas where the two sides agree on the skills learnt. Strategy and leadership are rated highly by both employers and graduate groups.
The opinion of companies is obviously important - they are the ones that will (or won't) deliver what MBAs expect. Companies taking part in the survey are from eight provinces and reflect SA's economic spread, but their results don't tell us much. Overall, they rate Wits as the leading MBA school, but only by a fraction above UCT. Then there is a drop to Stellenbosch, Unisa, Gibs and Pretoria, followed by fairly even support for the remaining schools. But the highest-scoring category was "don't know" with 27%; Wits scored 20%.
Not every school took part in the survey. Pretoria, as we explain later, is about to give up its MBA programme, the oldest outside the US. A couple of schools were worried about what our research would show. Limpopo University took part as an institution but its MBA programme is too new for us to canvass graduates.
But while our research shows a variety of graduate and employer perceptions of the value of an MBA, it won't do you much good if you can't get in or afford it. There are no race and gender obstacles to being accepted for an MBA. Black students account for over half the total SA MBA student body. The number of women students is also growing quickly. Their proportion ranges from 40% at the University of KwaZulu Natal to 20% at Wits Business School.
But money remains a real obstacle. The cost of acquiring an MBA from respondent schools ranges from R52 000 to R110 000 (see table on page 38). Prices are generally pitched according to the target market. Henley, the most expensive, runs SA's only "executive" MBA for top management. Cheaper options are available. The Durban-based Management College of Southern Africa (Mancosa), which did not take part in this survey, charges about R40 000. North West University's Mafikeng school, whose MBA is aimed at black public servants, is about the same.
Entry criteria are also a potential barrier. Most schools accept about half of those who apply (see table on page 38). Because an MBA is meant to be a postgraduate qualification, most schools insist on a bachelor's degree as a minimum requirement for pursuing an MBA. There may also be a battery of tests and interviews. Several years' business and management experience may be a prerequisite too. But that could change soon.
Ncube is tackling a decline in numbers of people applying to do an MBA at Wits in 2007. He says the drop has less to do with any perceived problem at Wits than with a change in the MBA market profile. It's the reason Wits is thinking the once-unthinkable - accepting younger MBA students.
In the US and some other markets, many MBA students begin their course straight after completing their initial university degree. In SA, schools insist on several years' work experience, preferably in management, before students are considered. In the US, the average MBA student is aged 26. In SA, he or she is probably over 30.
"SA students are in a different league," says Gibs director Nick Binedell. "They are more mature. You need previous work or management experience to get the best from your course." Carl Tams, of the London-based Association of MBAs (Amba), says an MBA should be a "post-experience qualification".
Ncube suggests the time is right to consider following the US model. "I'm not suggesting we lower standards but this business is strict on entry criteria and I think we have to look at options. Just because someone is younger and has a little less experience should not disqualify them from an MBA. We must also remember that we face increased competition. An MBA isn't the only study option for ambitious, talented people and yet we tell them they have to wait."
Wits isn't alone in thinking this way. UCT's Horwitz says a number of schools are debating the issue. But if it happens, "it will change the whole SA MBA experience".
Besides providing information for would-be MBA students, our research is intended to show schools where their courses are perceived to be falling short of ambitions. One alarm rings louder than any other.
In an age when ethics and corporate governance are supposedly at the core of business education, SA employers and MBA graduates agree: MBA schools are doing a lousy job of teaching these subjects. Market research shows that companies consider their MBA graduates to be ethically challenged. Graduates themselves score ethics and governance as the weakest elements of their MBA courses.
That's bad news for schools that have ploughed teaching resources into these subjects. The response from some schools to the findings is one of "maybe at other schools but not at ours". Their graduates disagree. Of those questioned, 40% say their courses inadequately prepared them to solve ethical dilemmas, and 45% that they are not properly equipped to deal with corporate governance issues.
Henley Management College academic director Sipho Seepe warns: "Ethics is too important for us to be complacent."
