Success for the MBA on tick

MONTREAL The prospect of an MBA programme that guarantees students a Can$50,000 (Pounds 25,000) a year job with their degree has tempted Canadians to dip their toe into private higher education.

Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario welcomed the first MBA for science and technology class last May. When the 60 students finish their degree next summer, the school will carry their loans over until their new job begins.

With the help of a financial institution, apparently happy to secure business from future executives, each student accepted on to the programme is eligible for a bank loan that covers the complete tuition - and is handed a Visa Gold Card. With more than 100 companies courting students, it appears that Queen's guarantee is low-risk.

The programme, which costs more than ten times the average tuition, may also entice provinces toying with the idea of coupling higher tuition fees with loan contingency plans.

A recent Statistics Canada study came out with high marks for a repayment plan tied to future earnings. Most students would succesfully repay on a schedule that recognises their actual income, unlike programmes now in place. One-third of fine arts and humanities graduates surveyed reported loan repayment problems.

The Queen's plan to guarantee loans came about after administrators of the programme had begun feeling the competititon from the big United States business schools, whose enrolments grew while the 26 Canadian institutions offering an MBA shrunk.

Queen's decided that to play on the same field as the Americans, it would forego government assistance and be self-financing. That not only brought up the tuition of the one-year degree to Can$22,000 but also the issue of accessibility. Kenneth Wong, chair of the programme, says: "In Canada, we've always viewed education as a right to every citizen."

The programme seems to be a harbinger for governments looking for a way out of funding expensive professional programmes.

According to Peter Eberley, author of the book Zero Tolerance: Hot-button Politics in Canadian Universities, it was just a matter of time before a university began to promote cost recovery.

"Universities should not steer away from continuing to support general education programmes," said Mr Eberley, who warns that universities, traditionally a place for independent thought, should be wary of falling into the economic and social priorities of the day. He says the mindset of the business sector, with its need to have short cost-effective courses, does not translate to every other discipline.

"Science, for example, is not efficient. It needs intensive research. The chasing of false leads has always been part of scientific discovery," said Mr Eberley.