Masters

1. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ACADEMIC AND A PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S PROGRAMME IN
BUSINESS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
WRITTEN BY: ANTHONY ADANGABE
There are various distinctions between an academic master’s programme and professional
master’s programme.This paper would consider these differences in the light of the objectives,
output and techniques for teaching the academic and professional master’s programme.
To begin with, an academic master’s programme in business education entails very broad base
knowledge training with emphasis on research work. The focus of the academic master’s
programme is on principles of the field of study. Its major aim is to provide training for those
who would undertake further research work and also teach in the same discipline.
On the other hand, a professional master’s programme is defined as one that provides advance
knowledge training with emphasis on the principles and practices of business administration.
The programme focuses on building and strengthening job skills of top management officers.
The beneficiaries are trained to design strategies and policies for implementation into the
business world. It addresses the current needs of the economy as well as the needs of its
students by providing both fundamental knowledge and specialized skills. The fundamental
knowledge is the foundation on which students build throughout their working lives whereas
specialized skills help advance their careers immediately by enabling them to smoothly
transition into the work place upon graduation.

2. Another area of difference is that, the graduates of the academic master’s programme are
expected to make significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge of business
practices through applied research, teaching and consulting. It is also designed to provide the
graduates with in-depth exposure to a specific business content area and sophisticated
analytical methods of training. Whilst, the professional master’s programme is geared towards
equipping graduates with managerial and decision-making skills.
To illustrate further, in the field of academic master’s programme where the programme
preoccupation is the development of models to assist in the transformation of the business
sector, the focus of training would be to understand the “why and the why not” of business
theories in the business world. For example: Why does the demand curve have a negative
slope? Also, the academic master’s in business may want to understand the principles behind
the elasticity of demand and further research to discover modern trends and exception to this
economic model. However, the professional master’s programme would majorly focus on the
“how”, the “what” and the “when” of academic theories propounded in the world of business.
For example: What decisions should a manager take or not take as a result of the impact
demand curve? The professional master’s programme would be mainly concerned with
corporate decisions and plans to adopt considering the elasticity of demand of their products
and services.
The distinction between an academic and professional master’ programme would provide
personnel the opportunity to research further into development and make improvements to

3. the business sector, while allowing personnel to implement these research findings. The impact
on management is presented in a diagram below:
‘
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S PROGRAMME
RESEARCH
TEACHING
EVALUATION CONSULTING FINDINGS
IMPLEMENTATION
The academic master’s programme would provide research for the business world and in turn
teach the professional master’s graduates findings and models for implementation to enhance
the business world. Again the professional master’s programme would implement and report
for evaluation on the viability of models discovered. Even when implementing financial models,
the academic masters would still provide needed consultancy to ensure research findings are
well implemented.
ACADEMIC MASTER'S COURSE BUSINESS WORLD
BUSINESS WORLD PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S COURSE

4. Based on the information above, one can conclude that the academic master’s serves as a
research tool for the business world for its development and growth whereas, the professional
master’s programme serves as an avenue for experimentation and implementation of the
research findings by the academic world.
REFERENCES:
1. www.ghanaweb.com
2. www.wikipdia.com
3. www.gimpa.edu.org