What is an MBA?

The MBA academic program is a higher education degree in business management. Normally, the courses are delivered by universities business schools and in business colleges. These programs are designed for students who wish to pursue a professional career in management or to climb the career ladder up to the top management positions.

The MBA focuses on theory and applied research and will help the student acquiring leadership skills as an executive, consultant or entrepreneur.

However, in recent years a new trend is leading entrepreneurs, managers and professionals to take informal MBA courses online or in distance learning; clearly, these programs are designed differently from traditional ones and make use of the APEL (Accreditation Prior Experiential Learning) methodology: an educational method that allows students to be evaluated for their managerial and study experience, obtaining a certain number of credits in relation to years of experience. These credits can replace the exams provided by the program in whole or in part and allow direct access to the final thesis. The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is not aimed at training a student that, as a manager, has years of practical and theoretical experience; rather, it targets at verifying the candidate's skills certifying them through a degree. A good MBA thesis is the best verified proof that the candidate meets the requirements for his or her degree.