Master of Business Administration

A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular area but an MBA is normally intended to be a general program. It originated in the United States in the early 20th century when the country industrialized and companies sought scientific management.

MBA programs in the United States typically require completing about forty to sixty semester credit hours, much higher than the thirty semester credit hours typically required for other US master's degrees that cover some of the same material. The UK-based Association of MBAs accreditation requires "the equivalent of at least 1,800 hours of learning effort", equivalent to 45 US semester credit hours or 90 European ECTS credits, the same as a standard UK master's degree. Accreditation bodies for business schools and MBA programs ensure consistency and quality of education. Business schools in many countries offer programs tailored to full-time, part-time, executive (abridged coursework typically occurring on nights or weekends) and distance learning students, many with specialized concentrations.

An "Executive MBA", or EMBA, is a degree program similar to an MBA program that is specifically structured for and targeted towards corporate executives and senior managers who are already in the workforce.

In 1900, the Tuck School of Business was founded at Dartmouth College offering the first advanced degree in business: the Master of Science in Commerce, a predecessor of the MBA. The first MBA was launched eight years later, at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, with 15 faculty members, 33 regular students and 47 special students. Its first-year curriculum was based on Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theory of scientific management. The number of MBA students at Harvard increased quickly, from 80 in 1908, over 300 in 1920, and 1,070 in 1930. At this time, only American universities offered MBAs, although business schools offering other qualifications had existed in Europe since the 18th century.

Other milestones include:

Globally, the three most important accreditations of MBA programs and business schools are the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Association of MBAs (AMBA), and the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), with holding all three of these being known as triple accreditation. Of these, AMBA offers programmatic accreditation for MBAs and other graduate degrees, while the others take a broader view, offering accreditation of the school rather than the MBA program (EFMD also offers programmatic accreditation, separately from EQUIS).

Business school or MBA program accreditation by external agencies provides students and employers with an independent view of the school or program's quality, as well as whether the curriculum meets specific quality standards. Currently the three major accrediting bodies in the United States are:

All of these groups also accredit schools outside the U.S. The ACBSP and the IACBE are themselves recognized in the United States by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). MBA programs with specializations for students pursuing careers in healthcare management also eligible for accreditation by the Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).