Unlike most other Australian MBA programs, the Melbourne Business School (MBS) full-time MBA is 16 months long and has two years of full-time work experience & the GMAT as admissions requirements. (Most other MBA programs here are 12 months long and don't require that much work experience or the GMAT). The program starts in January and runs for four terms, each one 13 weeks long (the last one is exam week). There are three terms in a year.

The version of the program I'm in, however, is new for MBS (we're the first such intake) and is a first for Australia as well. It starts in September (to be aligned with the northern hemisphere, where most of the world's MBA programs are) and runs for five terms over 20 months. The extra term is inserted in the middle (term 3 of 5) and is the internship term. You can, of course, skip the internship and complete your degree in 16 months, but about half of my class seems to be applying for an internship (that will run from May to August, 2007).

You are required to take 20 courses, ten of which are core courses. The core courses are:

• The World of Management (intro to management)
• Accounting for Managers
• Data and Decisions (business statistics)
• Financial Management
• Managerial Economics (microeconomics)
• Manaing People for High Performance (organizational behaviour)
• Business Strategy
• Economics and Public Policy (macroeconomics)
• Managing Processes (operations)
• Marketing

And there are lots of electives offered over the course of the program (at least 30 a year) concentrated around (1) finance and accounting; (2) international business management; (3) strategy, competition, and governance; (4) public sector management; (5) marketing; (6) organizations, human resources, and managerial development; and (7) technology and operations management.

There are also a number of scholarhips and fellowships available, ranging from the MBS Foundation Scholarships, the Rupert Murdoch Fellowship (for Australians only), and the Dean's International Management Scholarship (for international students only; originally named the Global Management Scholarship).

The MBS MBA is ranked #1 in Australia and is considered to be one of the best global and Australasian MBA schools as well (ranked in the Financial Times' top 100 MBA schools) -- though, for all intents and purposes, rankings are not all that relevant and they also differ widely among various publications. Generally, though, the MBS, AGSM, and MacQuarie MBAs are considered to be the best MBA programs in Australia.

[Last updated: 12 May, 2007]