Students who intend to complete their MBA abroad generally have multiple options to choose from. They can either go to US for their higher studies or opt for other economical options such as UK, France or Switzerland, among others.
Not all universities have built strong reputation for their business programme, some are definitely more sought-after than others.
One would wonder as to why are non-American destinations so much economical despite the euro (€) and British pound (£) being more valued than the US dollar.
This is primarily because European MBAs are usually for one year and tuition of European universities, in general, is far lower than what is charged by the US institutions.
A lowdown on an array of options across countries
MBA in UK: There are only a few B-schools in the UK, which are popular among students across the world. These include Oxford, Cambridge, London Business School and Imperial College.
The tuition fee for these universities is anywhere between £60-70,000. For instance, fee for full time MBA at Imperial is £67,500, whereas the tuition at Oxford is £78,500.
Besides this, one has to cough up a minimum of £12,000-15,000 on living expenses. Overall, this would come to around £90,500 (for Oxford). In Indian currency, this adds up to ₹94 lakh (£1 =104) for one year MBA.
At relatively less known B-schools, the fee is lower by nearly ₹20-25 lakh. For instance, Warwick charges £53,750 for one-year MBA, which is equivalent to ₹55.9 lakh in Indian currency. UCL charges £42,500 ( ₹44 lakh) for 1-year MBA global and Bayes Business School charges £50,400 ( ₹52 lakh).
MBA in France: In France, there are a number of good B-school options but the best ones include HEC, INSEAD and EDHEC. At HEC, the fee is €98,000 euros, which is equivalent to ₹87 lakh (at rate of 1 € = ₹89) in Indian currency.
INSEAD charges a fee of €99,500, which is equivalent to ₹88.55 lakh.
At EDHEC, the fee is €51,000 ( ₹45 lakh). The living expenses would add another ₹12 lakh to the total cost.
This makes the total cost to around ₹99 lakh (87+12) for HEC and ₹57 lakh (45+12) for EDHEC.
| Country | B-school | Fees (Rs) |
| UK | Oxford | 81.6 lakh |
| UK | Imperial | 70.2 lakh |
| France | INSEAD | 88.55 lakh |
| Switzerland | IMD | 88.72 lakh |
| Netherlands | Rotterdam | 57.8 lakh |
(Source: University websites)
MBA in Switzerland: In Switzerland, the best B-school arguably is IMD, which draws students from different parts of the world. The tuition of one-year MBA at IMD is CHF 97,500, which is equivalent to ₹88.72 lakh (at 1 CHF = 91).
MBA in Netherlands: In Netherlands, there are a number of B-schools such as Maastrich, Rotterdam and Amsterdam Business School.
Rotterdam School of Management charges a fee of €65,000 which is equivalent to ₹57.8 lakh while Amsterdam Business School charges a fee of €46,000, equivalent to around ₹41 lakh.
