Master of Science or MSc as it is most commonly known. MSc covers a broad range of subjects arts, finance, management. An MSc allows you to be an expert in the chosen topic or subject. A Master of Science teaches a specialised set of skills and depending on the subject, can include little or no business elements.
A Masters in Business Administration or an MBA offers a helicopter view on managing your business. An MBA exposes you to all the facets of business honing your management skills and equipping you with the knowledge that helps you with that decision making.
The MBA may appear more fashionable in contrast to the humble MSc, but both are meant to create different paths in your career.
The choice of wanting to study always needs to be based on how it influences your future plan. For example: if you have an aspiration to become a Financial Analyst in the banking industry then an MSc in Finance can certainly be the way forward. As the degree will help with a deep dive in the subject making you a specialist in the topic and successful in your career
When to choose what – 5 reasons
Work experience – With a few years of managerial experience it is most beneficial to study an MBA, but you can study an MSc with no prior experience.
Opportunities – Armed with an MSc it opens up doors in education-professor, lecturer, being analyst (e.g. financial analyst), head of the department as this degree is a deep dive in one topic or subject.
Horizontal vs Vertical - An MSc degree takes a deep dive into the topics making it vertical whereas the MBA is more an overview of all the parts of a business more horizontal in this context.
Academic qualification - To study an MSc, it is required to have a related educational qualification as a pre-requisite, in an MBA however with relevant work experience you can study the Masters.
Ambition - Last but not least, the choice of the programme depends on what your career ambition is. When you start your career, it is best to have short-term and long-term career goals then you can fit in a programme that best suits your plan.
Check out our Social sciences portfolio to see the range of programmes offered.