Understanding the GBA | GBA vs. MBA

How the GBA Compares

Business doesn’t stop at the border. Neither does our degree.

In an economy that has been fundamentally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, business professionals need to complement a strong functional base in finance, strategy, and other aspects of management with a global perspective. To successfully grow your international career, you must understand how legal issues, economic trends, geopolitical shifts, and security risks can make or break a business strategy.

Similar to a global MBA, the Fletcher School’s online Master of Global Business Administration (GBA) program takes an MBA education to the next level. The program merges business and international affairs knowledge to meet the needs of this shifting global landscape. GBA students graduate prepared to tackle the complex challenges facing 21st-century leaders.

A Global MBA vs. Traditional MBA Programs

MBA degree programs usually are grounded in foundational business skill sets, covering topics like accounting, finance, marketing, and strategy. The MBA degree is geared toward understanding how businesses operate successfully.

Fletcher’s master’s program in global business builds on these MBA foundations and adds the global perspective of economics, law, security, and politics. The GBA program takes the core of a global MBA and adds the critical contextual factors—economics, legal, social, and others—that impact international businesses today.

Our master’s in global business includes courses such as international law, security, and emerging markets policy, which are crucial for understanding the global landscape that business must navigate.

A Global MBA vs. Master’s in International Affairs Programs

A master’s in international affairs or international relations usually takes an interdisciplinary approach to global issues, offering courses on international politics, economics, law, and history. These programs tend to blend theoretical frameworks with practical knowledge for people interested in public sector, military, and policy careers.

An international business or NGO management professional, however, must also be proficient in issues of management and strategy. Fletcher’s Master of Global Business Administration covers a broad range of global issues while still developing students’ foundational business skills in strategy, finance, marketing, and management more broadly.

By understanding international business skills in a global context, graduates of the master’s in global business can apply their expertise in careers across a wide range of sectors—public, private, and NGO—or the spaces between those sectors, such as social enterprise, green energy, or government relations.

Direct From Our Students: How Does the GBA Compare to an MBA?

“The GBA gives you a bigger frame…It prepares you to think about being an actor in a global context on the global stage, and you’re made more aware in the GBA of all of the functions happening simultaneously to your business function around you. So when I’m talking to colleagues in different countries, I understand that there’s a lot more to their context than simply the tasks that we have in front of us.”

Jeremy Coffey, Class of ’24

Head of Operations

“A GBA is like an MBA but with a global perspective. A GBA focuses much more on broader issues of global affairs and global strategy, which is definitely really important nowadays as we have such a fragmented world with a lot of geopolitical risks. The ‘G’ [Global] element is the main differentiator between the MBA.”

Rihard Gederts, Class of ’24

Investment Management and Organization Team Manager

“I love that I got my MBA. However, the fact that it had such a global focus was really important. We are a global world, and everything is shareable and accessible now. And a GBA program actively fights xenophobia and this idea that it’s us versus them—that it’s America versus everyone else. There’s a lot of humanity and common ground in a GBA program that you wouldn’t otherwise find in a regular MBA program. I would describe the GBA program to someone who hasn’t heard of it as the global arm of an MBA program, with a perspective shift that looks at how we’re alike more than how we’re different.”

Victoria Weinberg, Class of ’22

Events Producer

Equip Yourself to Succeed with a Master of Global Business Administration

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Why the Fletcher School for International Business?

The online master’s in global business from The Fletcher School at Tufts University goes beyond a global MBA to develop your contextual intelligence. That is, you will build the core business skills you would find in an MBA while enhancing your ability to make strategic decisions in context.

When you pursue your degree online at Fletcher, you will connect with and learn from a cohort of like-minded international business professionals from a wide array of backgrounds and expertise

As a student in the Master of Global Business Administration program, you will connect with professionals who understand that international issues are messy, answers aren’t formulaic, and careers aren’t linear. You will build a rich network of connections that stretches around the world—and across the negotiating table.

You will graduate from this program with a sharpened distance vision—the ability to look around corners and anticipate international business risks and opportunities—and the skills to advance your career long after graduation.

Class Profile for the Master of Global Business Administration

The GBA program seeks out a wide range of students from diverse backgrounds. Statistics from our student body illustrate this diversity.¹

Credit Hours

16-24

Months

Program Immersions

Advance Within the Growing Global Economy

Conduct business across borders with a Master of Global Business Administration from The Fletcher School.

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¹ The self-reported information above reflects enrolled online students as of September 2020.