What is an MBA?

Deciding to study an MBA is not an easy task. Studying for a master's degree in business administration involves time, effort and financial investment. But all those who end up passing through the classrooms of business schools end up agreeing: in the end, taking a master's degree is worth it. And even more so if you have the possibility of choosing the MBA that best suits your personal and professional situation.

An MBA, Master's in Business Administration, is a postgraduate program taught by a business school, lasting between one and three years, and whose main objectives are for the student to be able to perform successfully in the business environment – always competitive and changing – and for them to know how to manage a company while understanding how to adapt its strategies to the conditions of the market and competition.

For example, if you have more than three years of experience and you want to take a leap forward in your professional career, or start your own business, the Full Time MBA from the UPF Barcelona School of Management (UPF-BSM) would be the right program for you. If, on the other hand, you already have more than five years of experience, you prefer not to leave your job, and aspire to lead companies with a global and innovative vision, then we recommend the Executive MBA (EMBA), in part-time format.

The Full Time MBA, in detail

With the full-time MBA from UPF-BSM you will acquire a strategic vision of the main functional areas of a company, and you will gain the necessary and specific skills, and knowledge of business management. While it requires full dedication, it is a flexible and personalized program in which each student will be able to create their own itinerary, incorporating content on areas of knowledge such as innovation, business development, sustainability, and leadership among many others.

Developed over 13 months, the Full Time MBA has a curriculum that includes compulsory subjects (divided into three modules and one week in an international business school) and optional subjects that are taught in both Spanish and English. During the program, students must also develop an individual project, which will start during the first weeks of the master's degree, and which they will undertake throughout the MBA.

The objective of all this is to develop a set of skills and abilities that will build the professional career of the participants: leadership, communication, cooperation, adaptive and critical thinking, decision-making, and autonomous learning, always assimilated in an integrated and transversal way.

What is the Executive MBA (EMBA)?

The Executive MBA, on the other hand, is a program aimed at professionals who have already had a significant professional career, and which, as it is part-time, allows them to continue working after being admitted to the master's degree. After 18 months, the EMBA will have turned you into a global leader, able to transform organizations, lead in uncertain circumstances and give new answers to the challenges that are posed to both companies and their managers

This part-time MBA from the UPF Barcelona School of Management also has core subjects (divided into four modules) and electives (some of them taught in English), in addition to an intensive week with a project to develop, a master's final project, and complementary activities such as outdoor training (a team building weekend), the International Study Trips (short stays in international destinations such as London or Shanghai) and the MBA Challenge (a four-day competition in which participants work on a real challenge), among others.

In short, the Executive MBA combines basic content, which is considered fundamental for any professional who wants to exercise a management function, with more specific content, which is customized together with the key figure of the mentor, who will act as a guide and will challenge your thinking and ideas in a personalized way, according to your personal skills and your professional project.

Both programs, the Full Time MBA and the Executive MBA, are accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBAs), the impartial authority on business training for more than 50 years, and include different evaluation systems according to each subject: exams, group work, individual work and, finally, the individual project.

Why choose MBAs from the UPF Barcelona School of Management?

As for teaching staff, the MBA and the Executive MBA are taught by top management professionals from leading companies, and academics of recognized international prestige from UPF-BSM and the Department of Economics and Business at the UPF. This ensures high-level training, combining conceptual aspects and practical approaches. The academic director of both programs is Professor Susana Domingo Pérez, senior lecturer at UPF-BSM.

The UPF Barcelona School of Management is located in the heart of Barcelona, in the midst of the creativity and business life that the city breathes. It is accredited by EQUIS, the most prestigious institutional recognition available for business schools that offer the best MBAs globally, which places it among the elite of business schools in the world of business administration. In addition, it is backed by the rigour and excellence that characterize Pompeu Fabra University, the top Ibero-American University and 16th-placed University in the world, among those younger than 50 years old, according to the Times Higher Education ranking.

The requirements to apply for UPF-BSM MBAs are simple. Do you want to take a leap forward?