The Global MBA Program Curriculum

The program will be taught in English and requires 42 credit hours. It is completed in 4 semesters and is a cohort or lock-step program. Before the program started, students have to attend residency period and Pre-MBA program for three weeks.

Pre – MBA Program                                                         

The Pre-MBA program is specifically designed to get the students back into an academic environment and learn/refresh the basics. The program consists of two main parts; a non-assessment residency period and the Pre – MBA Program. The residency period starts at the beginning of the program, and requires three weeks. Activities during this period include: orientation to the program which includes preparing students for the purpose of upgrading their knowledge and skills to reach the levels for the MBA Program. It will also include, an overview of certain business related disciplines (e.g., Management Systems and Decision Making, Information Technology, Economics, Accounting, Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Management, Statistics, and Research Methodology), and seminars on topical issues (e.g., Communication Skills, Learning Skills, Time Management, Stress Management, Negotiation Skills, and Creative Thinking).

The curriculum is designed to have four parts; Foundation Courses, Specialized Courses, Integrative Courses, and a Project.

Part One Foundation Courses: The foundation courses encompass relevant knowledge and understanding of organizations, the external context in which they operate and how they are managed. Care is taken to ensure that candidates acquire a firm understanding of the major areas of knowledge which underpin general management. The total number of credits for the foundation courses is 21 (Table 1)

Table 1: Foundation Courses

Part Two Specialized Courses: Through his/her specialization choice, he/she may follow either a more general specialist route in one of the following industries: Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Health Care, Tourism, Insurance and Banking, Real estate, Information Technology, and Logistics. Other Industries can be included as they prove necessary to Saudi Arabia’s economical development. A student chooses 9 study units in specialized courses with a partner University. If the students complete the specialized courses with success the specialized industry will be clearly mentioned in the Graduation Certificate. (Table 3) Although CMSP-MBA allows some specialization, it still retains its general broad character. (Table 4).

Due to the diversity of the Industrial specialization and availability of teaching faculty who are specialized in those industries the School will procure the require agreements for a partnership with international accredited universities. Those specialization courses will be taught by international universities in their homeland or in some cases in Saudi Arabia.

As the international universities will define the specialization courses there will be a need to co-ordination with those universities to cover the different dimensions of the different industries that will match the culture and the environment of Saudi Arabia. (Table 2)

Although the focus of the MBA is on specialized industries, the student's can choose a general path of the MBA Selecting 9 study units from group of courses. (Table 3)

Table 2: Specialized Courses:

The student will choose 9 study units from the following courses.

Table 3: General MBA Courses :

Part Three Integrative Courses: Student will complete 9 study units. Three subjects will constitute the integrative element of the curriculum. Students in these courses integrate and apply knowledge, theories, concepts and issues from various business disciplines in their problem solving analysis (Table 4).

Part 4 Project: One subject with 3 study units. The curriculum contains substantial individual work undertaken as a project, providing evidence of ability to integrate the individual core subjects. MBA Project Length is 10,000 -20,000 words. A project is practically based and allows candidates to demonstrate an understanding of theory and its application at Masters Level. Although literature review based projects are acceptable, cooperation of an employing organization is encouraged, and a joint supervisor from the employer may be appointed (Table 4).

Table 4: Integrative Courses and Project

Duration and Timing

A 42 study units MBA, is divided into four semesters. Each semester consists of fourteen weeks; usually twelve weeks of taught material, one week of revision and the fourteenth week for sitting examinations or submitting coursework. Students are asked to select their choice of specialized courses during the second term (Table 5)

Table 5: Program Structure over Four Semesters

Graduation Certificate

Upon successful completion of the program requirements, if the student specialized in an industry the certificate will show MBA with Concentration in the specified industry. For those who are choosing the General MBA the certificate will show MBA only without specialization.