Affordable advantage COLMBA

THE PROGRAMMES PREPARE GRADUATES FOR INTERNATIONAL-LEVEL PERFORMANCE. Demand is growing for post-graduate human resource training to increase the number of highly trained professionals required to maintain economic momentum and good governance. COL is playing a catalytic role in addressing this need in South Asia, directly benefiting individuals and the organisations in which they work, and thereby indirectly benefiting their societies. Upwardly mobile South Asian executives can now enrol in the Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration/Master of Public Administration Programmes (CEMBA/CEMPA, www.col.org/cemba ), taking the distance education courses wherever they live or work.

The Commonwealth Executive MBA/MPA has been offered since mid-2002 through four premier South Asian open universities: Bangladesh Open University (BOU), Indira Gandhi National Open University, (IGNOU, India), Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL), and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU, Pakistan), although the last, AIOU, began offering courses in early 2003. The CEMBA/CEMPA was designed, developed and implemented as a result of collaboration between the four universities and writers from universities in Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This was brokered by COL with funding assistance from the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC).

The CEMBA/CEMPA focuses on optimising local productivity. Even better are the affordable fees, flexible study pace and seamless credit transfer between partner institutions offered to potential students. Courses feature relevant local learning materials and case studies, and cover everything from managing information and public systems to development planning and quality assurance. English is the lingua franca.

How long does it take to complete? Almost as long as learners want or have the time for within a five year period. Designed for part-time study by busy working professionals, the programmes can be completed by students at their own pace. As well, they don't have to take the full degree to benefit from the courses offered. Diploma and graduate diploma options are available. The full graduate degree requires a minimum of two years study up to a maximum of five years (although re-registration is possible after the expiry of five years).

The diploma option can be obtained in as little as one year. Learners receive certification from the institution they are accepted into. Admission requirements are streamlined across the four partner institutions. The programmes provide opportunities to acquire both accreditation and valuable training for candidates who are resident of a participating country, possess any sort of undergraduate degree (or have worked in a related field for at least two years) and can pass a test of professional experience and English fluency.

End-of-semester course evaluations are ongoing and an overall programme evaluation is underway.

Projections for the CEMBA/CEMPA promise a significant short- and long-term human and economic development pay-off for the SouthAsianCommonwealth region. As a working example of close regional collaboration, the CEMBA/CEMPA provides a template for the development of similar programmes elsewhere. To that end, COL has now discussed the development and promotion of a CEMBA/CEMPA programme with the National Open University of Nigeria, targeting learners in Commonwealth Africa as well with the Wawasen Education Foundation in Malaysia.