LESS than one year after launching the 12-month Australian Institute of Business Masters Degree in Business Administration (AIB MBA),Nations University in Guyana is gearing up for its third intake of students to do the programme, which is due to come on stream in October.
Launched last year, the programme has since been recruiting every three to four months, said AIB’s Marketing Director, Mr. Joel Abraham, who, along with AIB’s International Support Manager, Mr. Bojan Mandic, arrived here last Sunday on a 2-day visit to conduct an inaugural information session with prospective students for the upcoming intake.
The highly interactive information forum was held on Monday evening at the University’s campus at New Market Street, South Cummingsburg; and the AIB officials departed Guyana last Tuesday, upbeat and very elated over the programme’s prospects.
Heartened at the response to the programme, Director of Nations University, Dr. Brian O’Toole, said it’s been a very impressive start, adding that there’s been a lot of interest here locally, with no major difficulties being experienced so far.
“We’re going now into our third batch.  We have one batch that’s nearing completion with about 23 students; a second batch of 19, and we’re about halfway through the process for our third intake.”
The trio who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle last week is putting a lot of energy into promoting the programme. On the afternoon of the information session, at which Dr. O’Toole and the visiting duo met with prospective students, there were just ten places remaining, and the trio was optimistic that those places would be taken in a very short time. Each batch accommodates about 25 students.
Marketing Director, Joel Abrahim, on his third visit to Guyana promoting the MBA programme, remarked: “The response has been fantastic! The programme is expanding and we’re really excited to be here, because we believe in the market. We believe there’s a really great opportunity here.”
The visit also gave him and AIB’s International Support Manager, Mr. Bojan Mandic, the opportunity to meet and have discussions with faculty students as well, and the partners registered their commitment to addressing any issue that may arise.

Citing some of the benefits of the 12-month AIB MBA programme, Abraham highlighted:
* Students, on successful completion, get a degree which is internationally recognized and fully accredited, without leaving home, and it comes at a very affordable cost.
* It is both manageable and assessable for working adults here. The study hours are amazing:  It’s very practically-oriented, so as to allow people to continue with their work even as they study.  Students do not have to be in class room every day of the working week. The classes are conducted on designated Saturdays and Sundays of each month.
* At Nations University, students have access to a whole range of materials that are provided by Australia: up-to-date text, learning materials, sample exam papers, and access to online library.
Abraham said accreditation is based on the Australian Accreditation framework which is fully recognized. In addition, they are in the process of getting accreditation locally, through the National Accreditation Council (NAC) here.
Visiting with Joel and making his maiden trip to the Caribbean was AIB’s International Support Manager, Mr. Bojan Mandic, whose mission was to meet with the owners of the centre; see how the information sessions are run; and meet and dialogue with faculty students they have only been communicating with via phone book and e-mail.  He, too, said he was very impressed with what he’d seen, adding: “Definitely it is an experience I can share with colleagues back in Australia.”
In Australia, Mandic runs the international support team, basically working closely with teaching centres to provide the academic and administrative support to the teams.
“Essentially, we dialogue, invite a lot of feedback on changes required (if any) to make relationships function better, and listen to suggestions for improvement.”
For him, providing the highest level of support and continually striving for that goal is of the essence.  That achieved, he said, the experience of the teaching centres working with AIB as well as students would be much more enjoyable, effective and efficient.
“We don’t want to have a situation where students feel like they’re just left on the ledge. We want to hear your concerns and ensure we get back the responses to you as quickly as possible,” Mandic concluded.