Apollo, the parent company of University of Phoenix, has big plans to enter the UK MBA market. The company recently completed the acquisition of BPP Holdings, the UK-based professional education company, for a purchase price of approximately $607 million.

Though BPP’s main business is financial training, BPP is also the parent of BPP Business School, the UK’s only for-profit business institution with the authority to award degrees. BPP began teaching its first MBA course a year ago, but the company expects the school to see solid year-on-year profit and growth, especially with Apollo’s backing and resources.

“We are excited to welcome BPP to Apollo Global and look forward to joining together to provide enhanced educational advancement and career development opportunities to professionals in the UK and throughout Europe,” said Greg Cappelli, co-chief executive officer of Apollo Group and chairman of Apollo Global. “BPP provides us with an ideal platform from which we can expand our European presence. We have long been impressed with BPP, the reputation of its academic programs, the caliber of the faculty and employees, and the leadership and direction of its management team. Together our organizations are a good fit strategically, operationally and culturally.”

With the acquisition of BPP, Apollo expands its footprint into the UK to provide an important service to a segment of the population previously left out of traditional higher education. This acquisition will boost BPP’s online operations. By 2011, every class BPP Business School offers will be available online. Chris Brady, dean of BPP Business School, expects most students to select a hybrid method of learning, where they take some classes at physical campuses and others online. This appeals to the company’s target market of busy working professionals who place a premium on convenience.

Apollo’s acquisition of BPP comes at a time when the severe global downturn has heightened the need for the business education degrees that Apollo and BPP provide. “Many of the jobs being lost today may never come back again. People are figuring out that the skill set they have is no longer relevant for the economy of the future. They realise that to move up in their career they need other qualifications and more levels of higher education such as an MBA ,” Mr. Cappelli says.

About Apollo Group, Inc.

Apollo Group, Inc. has been an education provider for more than 30 years, providing academic access and opportunity to students through its subsidiaries, University of Phoenix, Institute for Professional Development, College for Financial Planning, Western International University, Meritus University, Insight Schools and Apollo Global.

About BPP Holdings

BPP Holdings provides training and exam-based courses for a wide range of professional careers. Founded in 1976 as an accountant training company, BPP remains as one of the largest such companies Europe. The school also offers courses and certifications for actuarial, financial services, human resources, law, marketing, market research, and tax professions. It provides ongoing professional development courses and offers classroom learning, distance learning, and e-learning courses.

To meet this growing demand for education in social media strategy, several top business schools are adding social network courses to their MBA curricula. These courses target MBA students who are planning to start their own Web 2.0 companies, or who are considering careers in high technology, entertainment, social media or consumer packaged goods. Harvard Business School, for example, has a course called “Competing with Social Networks”, taught by Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski.

Using the case method of teaching that Harvard is famous for, the social network course at Harvard Business School examines why some social networks succeeded while others failed. Here MBA students examine: LinkedIn, Friendster, Twitter and mixi (a popular social network in Japan). The students then examine monetization challenges and opportunities by comparing MySpace and its music venture to Facebook Connect and Google’s Friend Connect.

The second module uses the network failure framework to establish conditions under which adding social networks helps or hinders competitive advantage of existing business models. Among others, we consider a matchmaking company, eHarmony, a peer-to-peer lending company, Zopa, an on-line reviews company, Yelp, and finally, Wikipedia Contributors.

Company executives are usually invited to contribute to classes. Students are also required to participate in a fun team project in which they aim to become a Yelp Elite member or Wikipedia editor, sell $1,000 of products or services on Twitter, or generate a 0.25% click-through rate on a Facebook ad!

Though younger students may live and breathe social media and know how to use embed hashtags in their Tweets, the social media space is fast-growing, ever-evolving, and innovative and is not yet well understood from a strategic perspective. Other top-tier business schools, such as London Business School and Insead, have also started incorporating social network into their MBA curriculum.

As many of you know, Google recently stopped cooperating with the Chinese government and is no longer censoring its searches in China. In January, Google has revealed that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted last December in a hacking attempt. That has convinced the search company to stop censoring results China and go against the Chinese government wishes.

Anonymous sources close to the Chinese government claim the YouTube hack is meant as a warning — a display of power — and other Google websites could be next. The source hints that Google Maps could be next, in a move that “would change the face of the earth”, suggesting that the maps themselves could be modified to fit China’s world view.

Since Google has not released an official statement about the issue and given it seems it is not a global YouTube outage, it might or it might not be a cyber attack on Google. Let us know if YouTube works for you, and stay tuned cause we’ll let you know as soon as Google releases a statement!

UPDATE: YouTube is now up!

1. University of the People

A few days ago, we wrote an article about the democratization of the MBA degree. University of the People, the world’s first tuition-free online university, is the epitome of this democratization. University of the People is a non-profit organization committed to opening the gates of higher education. The University currently offers two degree programs, Business Administration and Computer Science. Here’s how the University describes its business program:

The University’s Business Administration program offers a broad exposure to business administration and economics. Behavioral and quantitative sciences are studied in both theoretical and applied contexts. Mathematics is used as a key tool in the analysis of complex problems and in the interpretation of data. Emphasis is placed on effective written communication. Students are made aware of the need for imaginative, innovative solutions to business problems that encompass human needs and ethical objectives.Business Administration focuses on investigating how business theory and application works and how it can be used to solve real-world problems.

Our program offers a new learning experience similar to academic studies towards a BA in Business Administration and this curriculum will provide you with a strong, broad-based education in the fundamentals of business policy and procedure.

While an online MBA costs $32,000 on average, University of the People does not charge students to take classes. Study materials are available online free of charge. The only two areas that require modest fees are application and assessment processing. These fees are based on the standard of living in the student’s country or place of residence:

• Application fee: This ranges from $10 to $50 based on the student’s country or place of residence.
• Assessment processing fee: Each course ends with a final examination for which students will be required to pay a sliding scale fee. The fee ranges from $10 to $100 per exam based on the student’s country or place of residence.

How do I register to study at the University of the People?
You must fill out an online application form and submit a 400-500-word essay. See more details.

Can I get a certificate?
No. Currently, University of the People is not an accredited institution and does not confer degrees. The University’s programs offer a new learning experience similar in scope to these two business degrees: an Associate (A.S.) and a Bachelor’s (B.S.) in Business Administration. The University plans to apply for accreditation and these programs may in the future lead towards undergraduate degrees. However, no degrees will be granted until the University obtains proper authorization from the relevant authorities.

2. MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is is a free online publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT, including those taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. An MBA from MIT Sloan costs nearly $100,000 – excluding additional costs for housing, food, medical insurance, books, and personal expenses. MIT Sloan’s courses at OCW are open and available to the world for free!

How do I register to use MIT OpenCourseWare?
There is no registration or enrollment process because OCW is not a credit-bearing or degree-granting initiative.

Can I get a certificate?

No. MIT OpenCourseWare is a publication of the course materials that support the dynamic classroom interactions of an MIT education. It is not a degree-granting or credit-bearing initiative. OCW is not an MIT education and does not provide access to MIT faculty.

Once the poor cousin of its campus-based equivalent, the online MBA has become a valuable alternative for students unwilling or unable to invest two years of their professional lives in the traditional classroom-based MBA experience. Suddenly, business and career opportunities once available only to the well-heeled and the elite are now available to the masses.

But has the concept of an online MBA spun out of control? The sector now boasts a dizzying array of programs from the most prestigious education brands like the Harvard Business School to super schools such as the University of Phoenix, with over 65,000 students enrolled in its online MBA program.

Online MBA costs also vary wildly, from as low as $8,000, to $37,500 for an executive MBA degree program at Harvard Business School. So are all MBAs created equal? Does price indicate the intrinsic worth of some programs over others? While it might be easy to scorn at the low-cost providers, do they perform a valuable function in democratizing business education?

But does quality drop when a program targets a mass market? The University of Phoenix views its admissions approach as being inclusive, arguing that bricks-and-mortar universities exert a form of elitism by using grades and standardized testing as a way of restricting class size, whereas the online university can offer places to a wider student body whose priority is simply to move ahead.

Harvard Business School, on the other hand, insists on the same rigorous academic entry criteria for all its executive MBA programs, regardless of class format. With its new Program for Leadership Development that combines online and on-campus learning, Harvard Business School is targeting a different market segment, focusing on experienced managers with no option for a two-year career break. This program offers them a good alternative and access to the world’s most prestigious business school.

So are online MBA degrees worth the paper they’re printed on? Absolutely. The key is earning your online MBA from an accredited, well-established business school. In a recent survey by Vault.com, as much as 86 percent of employers reported a positive impression of online degrees, especially those issued by reputable institutions. If you’re hesitant about earning your MBA online, you can lay your worries to rest. Just make sure that your school is accredited.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is about to undergo a major change in fall 2011. Educational Testing Service, the non-profit institution that produces the GRE test, said GRE will be revised to include several things:

• GRE test takers will now have the ability to go back to a section to change their answers. The current GRE does not provide test takers with this freedom and flexibility.
• A new scoring scale will change the 200 to 800 point scale to a 130 to 170 point scale.
• Antonyms and analogies will be removed from the GRE verbal section.
• An online calculator will be added to the quantitative section.

Many believe that these changes are being made to the GRE to position itself as a competitor to the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), the current de-facto standard for MBA applications.

Kimberley Ong, a recent college graduate, took the GRE to apply to Harvard Business School and Stanford earlier this year. She says “I took the GRE instead of the GMAT because when I am not sure whether to pursue an MBA or a masters degree in public administration. Taking the GMAT would have locked me to an MBA, but the GRE is a lot more flexible and keeps my options open.”

It will be interesting to see if these changes to the GRE  will increase the number of MBA programs that accept it. More and more business schools are now accepting the GRE, and this change in 2011 could propel the GRE as a globally accepted test for MBA prospective students.

Students planning to take the new GRE in 2011 can receive more information on these changes and sign-up for test updates at ETS.org.

The program is designed for high-potential managers and functional specialists with approximately 10 years of work experience. PLD serves individuals with excellent prospects for leadership within their organizations. Participants of the HBS PLD program represent diverse business functions, companies, industries, and countries.

The PLD program is a 28-week program and costs $37,500. It is one of the most expensive online MBA programs around.

Learn more about the HBS PLD  program

The Economist Online MBA Rating Methodology

Before I name the top-rated programs, there are a couple of things you should know about this rating. First, it is a rating and not a ranking: online MBA programs are assigned ratings of excellent, good, average, and poor—not a number. Second, it is a rating of 15 “handpicked” online MBA programs, not all the programs that are available.

The Economist based its rating on ten quality measures grouped into three broad, equally weighted categories: program content, student quality, and effectiveness of distance learning elements (such as learning materials).

Most of the information for the rating comes from the online MBA schools themselves or surveys of students in the programs.

The Economist Top-rated Online MBA Programs

So who came out as winners? In the “excellent” category, only two schools made it:

1. the Internet MBA offered by University of Florida and
2. the International Executive MBA offered by IE Business School in Spain.

Here’s what The Economist had to say about these two programs:

Both schools scored well across the board. IE’s students, for example, have an average of 13 years of work experience, and although students are spread as widely as Nigeria and Turkmenistan, they also say they feel incredibly connected to the school. Furthermore, despite its hefty price tag—programme fees of €52,000 ($76,440) make it the most expensive surveyed—students still consider it to be excellent value for money. It is a similar story at Florida. Although its students have much less work experience than those at IE, they do rate their classmates as being the best of the schools surveyed. They also rave about the quality of the distance-learning materials used by the school. And it, too, scores well on value for money. Both schools also have a low student attrition rate.

In the “good” category, there were three schools:

1. Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business,
2. Thunderbird School of Global Management, and
3. the Euro MBA, a partnership among schools in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, and Poland.

Download The Economist online MBA program ratings

PLD participants earn HBS alumni status by completing an additional 10 days (two credit weeks) of HBS Executive Education programs.

Module 1: Foundational Skill Building

Format: Off-Campus Learning
Duration: Ten Weeks

Distance-Learning Courses – Given their different educational and professional concentrations, participants tend to have varying degrees of experience and proficiency in fundamental areas such as accounting, finance, and quantitative methods. To establish a common level of understanding and to ensure that participants maximize their learning experience and keep up with this fast-paced program, they need to work individually to finish the required coursework—including proficiency exams—in these areas before arriving on campus for Module 2. Satisfactory completion of each module is required in order to advance to the next module of the program.

Module 2: Cross-Functional Business Approach

Format: On-Campus Learning at HBS
Duration: Two Weeks

Through an in-depth, cross-functional examination, participants develop capabilities in key business functions as they gain valuable insights into the latest management techniques and technologies. In the areas of strategy, marketing, and operations, the focus is less on growth and more on operations. Participants will explore new ways to manage in down cycles as they face increasing budget reductions, shrinking markets, intensifying competition, more price-sensitive customers, and fewer resources.

The overarching framework for integrating critical business functions includes:

Strategy – Functional and business-unit strategy formulation and implementation; sustainability; value creation; competitive analysis; competitive positioning; and competitive advantage. Participants complete a customized strategy exercise focused on a defined initiative.

Marketing – Product management; marketing strategy; market segmentation; product positioning; pricing; market analysis and planning; branding; customer acquisition and retention; and employee, shareholder, and customer satisfaction for profit and growth.

Balanced Scorecard – Value definition and measurement; performance targets and assessments; people, processes, and information technology alignment; and value-creating strategies.

Finance and Accounting – Financial systems; budgeting; forecasting; cost of equity; performance measurement and evaluation; profitability analysis; valuation; financial accounting; journal entries; financial statements; financial reporting strategies; and accounting policies.

Operations – Internal processes; technology and operations strategies; product and market capabilities; operations improvements; coordination/supply chain management; new product/process creation and analysis; and human resource capacities.

Module 3: Strategy Formulation and Implementation

Format: Off-Campus Learning
Duration: Fourteen Weeks

Participants complete strategy projects and engage in synchronous and asynchronous online exercises, group work, and individual study. They should expect to commit an average of three to six hours per week to these program assignments and activities. Satisfactory completion of each module is required in order to advance to the next module of the program. Components include:

Strategy Project – Participants formulate a detailed strategy and implementation plan for a defined initiative. Drawing from the foundational skills and cross-functional business knowledge they acquired in the previous modules, they make organizational decisions and apply management techniques and technologies that will drive their desired results.

Business Simulation Exercise – Assigned to management teams in companies competing in the same industry, participants each assume the role of a senior executive in charge of a primary business function. Working together through a dedicated portal, virtual meeting rooms, and teleconferencing, they analyze the competitive landscape, and then formulate and implement the strategies for their respective companies. As they strive to achieve competitive advantage over the companies run by fellow participants, senior teams make decisions about raising capital, entering or exiting product categories, manufacturing and distribution, and marketing and sales strategy. Through online debriefings with program faculty during the simulation exercise, they evaluate company performance, assess teamwork effectiveness, and reinforce the results-oriented learning.

Introduction to Change Management – Participants complete online learning sessions, which include video case studies, multimedia faculty presentations, and hands-on exercises. Through these tools, they are introduced to the elements of leading change—interfunctional relationships; internal communication networks; incremental and discontinuous organizational change; organizational ambidexterity; and strategic experimentation and learning. Additionally, participants are presented with a framework for implementing the results of the company-specific strategy exercise completed earlier.

Customized Leadership Learning Path Assessment – Together with their company sponsors, participants complete an assessment of individual leadership and management competencies. The assessment results are evaluated at HBS, with particular focus on strengthening individual leadership capacity. A prioritized list of areas to be addressed during the program then is developed for every manager. The assessment results are the basis for personal coaching in Module 4, as well as for a curriculum of leadership resources and tools.

Module 4: Actionable Leadership

Format: On-Campus Learning at HBS
Duration: Two Weeks

Through an integrated organizational perspective, participants analyze the individual leadership challenges they face in making decisions and their roles in driving real results throughout the company. More time is spent analyzing the stresses surrounding job security, as well as the uncertainty among direct reports and colleagues. Working with personal coaches, they build confidence and individual capabilities that will enhance their leadership effectiveness in the workplace. The primary focus is on:

Risk Management – Importance of being entrepreneurial; strategies for exploiting opportunities as the global economy rebounds from the current downturn.

Effective Decision Making and Execution – Personal leadership; teamwork; group effectiveness; compensation and incentives; leadership development; management versus leadership; and conflict leadership.

Personal Coaching – The coaching program is designed to help participants transfer the learning and knowledge acquired from the course modules to their specific professional situation. During Modules 2 and 4, a personal coach is assigned to work with each participant. Through a combination of team-based action learning sessions and one-on-one coaching meetings, participants will gain greater insight into their personal leadership style and approach. The coaching component also provides a forum for participants to process personal feedback, seek advice on management and leadership skills, and develop an action plan for continued personal and professional development.

Participants also learn what is required of them in other vital areas of management:

Innovation Challenges – Common language for company-wide collaboration; experimentation and learning; opportunity identification; balance between core businesses and innovations; and new-growth businesses.

Change Management – Performance and opportunity gaps; organizational alignment and design skills; organizational culture; and links between innovation and organizational evolution.

Globalization – International expansion; global strategic postures; cross-border competitiveness and local responsiveness; management roles and relationships in transnational companies; and country economic priorities and development strategies.

Guest Speakers on the Global Financial Crisis

Top business leaders like HBS Professor Robert C. Pozen, chairman of Boston-based MFS Investment Management, will share insights on the redefined role of the financial sector and on new forms of investment such as sovereign wealth funds.

JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon speaks with 900 freshly minted MBAs at Harvard Business School. He talks about lifelong learning, overcoming failure, being honest to yourself, and more.