MBA

The College of Industrial Management offers a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, which provides the necessary education and skills to prepare students to work and perform successfully at all, levels of management. The program covers all the functional areas of business and allows the students to take additional elective courses that match their career aims and their personal goals and development, which allows them to further integrate all functional areas and gain the essential overall view of organizational performance. The program accepts both full and part-time students and provides a list of deficiency courses for those whose educational background is not in business fields. Various teaching methods are utilized including experiential learning, cases, team projects, field research, and simulations.

While the overall orientation of the program in general business management, it also puts sufficient emphasis on leadership, globalization, strategy, and stresses application of the theory and skills to the Saudi business environment.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

An applicant for admission to the MBA program should:

1. A four-year Bachelor’s Degree (B.A., B.S. or B.E.) in business, engineering or science from an institution whose undergraduate programs are substantially equivalent in length, content, and quality to those of KFUPM, with a major in the proposed field or evidence of suitable background for entering the proposed field.
2. Grade-Point Average (GPA) of 2.50 or higher on a scale of 4.00 or equivalent, and a GPA of 3.00 in the subject of the major field. Official transcripts and degree certificates are required for final admission.
3. Completion of TOEFL with a minimum score of 520 (PBT), 190 (CBT) or 68 (IBT). The TOEFL score must be sent directly to the Deanship of Graduate Studies (KFUPM code is 0868). IELTS is also acceptable (min 6.0).
4. Completion of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) with an acceptable score.
5. At least three letters of recommendation from the faculty who taught the applicant undergraduate courses.
6. At least one course in college-level calculus which covers both differentiation and integration subjects.
7. A working knowledge of computers as evidenced by at least one course in that area (e.g. data processing, programming, information systems, etc.)
8. At least one-year of full-time work experience. This requirement may be waived for graduate assistants, research assistants, and applicants with exceptional academic records.

ADMISSION OF STUDENTS WITH DEFICIENCIES

Students who are admitted to the MBA program are expected to have all the basics and fundamentals in the functional areas of business administration. Those who have a deficiency 10 in all or some of these areas will be provided with the opportunity to enroll in the deficiency courses offered by the College of Industrial Management. The following conditions will apply to these students:

1. They are admitted as Pre-MBA students and are not allowed to enroll in the MBA core and elective courses until they complete all of their deficiency courses.
2. All Pre-MBA courses must be completed with a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or more for the student to be admitted to the MBA program.
3. Pre-MBA courses will not count in the MBA program GPA calculation for purposes of graduation. The MBA cumulative GPA will include grades in the core, elective and capstone courses only.

Pre-MBA Courses:

Each applicant’s academic record will be reviewed. The applicants who are deficient in the basics and fundamentals of business functional areas will be provided with the opportunity to enroll in all or some of the following deficiency courses:

1. ACCT 502 Introduction to Accounting and Finance 3
2. ECON 501 Principles of Economics 3
3. OM 502 Statistical Analysis for Business 3

MBA DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

The candidates for the MBA degree are those students who have been admitted to the program and are not required to take deficiency courses or have completed their required deficiency courses with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.00 on a 4.0 scale and fulfilled all admission provisions. The MBA degree requirements consist of 42 credit hours of which 30 credit hours are in core courses, 9 credit hours in electives, and 3 credit hours in experiential learning.

The MBA degree course requirement: (42 Credit Hours)

Core Courses

Required Experiential Learning Course

Elective Courses

Each student is required to take 9 credit hours from the list of elective courses. The student is given the freedom and flexibility to tailor his electives to meet his personal and career goals and interests. A student may elect to broaden his knowledge and skills by taking his electives from different functional areas or he may elect to concentrate all of his electives in one functional area to gain depth and specialization in that area. In addition to the MBA elective courses available to the MBA students in the College of Industrial Management, a student may take one of his electives from other graduate courses offered in the University with the approval of the Department Chairman and the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Pre-MBA Requirements for Non-MBA Students

Current MBA Prerequisites Chart

Admission Requirement for Master Programs in Business Administration

The minimum requirements for possible admission as a regular graduate student in a Master program in Business Administration are as follows:

• A four-year Bachelor’s (B.A., B.S. or B.E.) Degree in business, engineering or sciences fields from a recognized institution.
• A Grade-Point Average (GPA) of at least 3.00 on a scale of 4.0 or equivalent. Official transcripts and degree certificates are required for final admission.
• Completion of TOEFL with a minimum score of 520 (PBT), 190 (CBT) or 68 (IBT). The TOEFL score must be sent directly to the Deanship of Graduate Studies (KFUPM code is 0868). IELTS is also acceptable (min 6.0).
• Completion of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) with a minimum score of 450. The GMAT scores must be sent directly to the Deanship of Graduate Studies (KFUPM code for GMAT is 0868).
• At least three letters of recommendation from the faculty who taught the applicant undergraduate courses. [to be submitted to the online recommendation system]
• At least one course in college-level calculus which covers both differentiation and integration subjects.
• A working knowledge of computers as evidenced by at least one course in that area (e.g. data processing, programming, information systems, etc.)
• At least one-year of full-time work experience. This requirement may be waived for graduate assistants, research assistants, and applicants with exceptional academic records. For Executive MBA program, a minimum experience of 8 years, including 3 years in mid or upper-level managerial position.
• Satisfactorily meeting any additional departmental or university admission requirements.

Note: Satisfying the minimum admission requirements does not guarantee admission into the program as final admission is subject to an evaluation of the whole application, and the capacity of individual programs.