Going the MBA distance

The stress levels among MBA students, most of whom are also holding down a career at the same time, are legendary.

Many can tell horror stories about people whose lives were turned upside down by the pressures of what is only half-jokingly call the "Marriage Break-up Association."

Aware of this, and not wanting to turn into a "three-headed gorgon" who never saw his family, Wellington's Richard Dean opted for one of the newer breed of MBAs, the distance-learning Henley Management College/Auckland University of Technology MBA, the biggest part-time programme in the world, with 6000 registered students globally.

The MBA took Dean, Leaseplan NZ's regional manager, three-and-a-half years part-time. He has just returned from his graduation ceremony at Henley, in England.

The motivation? A suggestion from his former employer, the ASB Bank, that it would "reach me out a lot further."

The Henley name, he reasoned, would give his $25,000 MBA clout in overseas markets. Home-based study would not constantly drag him away from his family; student tutorials were held just once every two months, in Wellington.