Most Australian and overseas MBA programs do the following two subjects as part of their core :

  • Accounting [i.e. Financial Modelling (Accounting with Excel modelling)]
  • Corporate Finance [i.e. Financial Management]

In most circumstances only two further electives are required for a non-accounting degree holder to complete the CMA program subjects. Thus a non-accountant can get an MBA, CMA by doing two electives, in addition to their two core MBA units, as follows:

  • Strategic Cost Management
  • Strategic Business Analysis

If you have completed the CMA program by examination, then most MBA programs will give between 2-4 credit exemptions in the MBA. For this reason it has been extremely popular since 1997, and over 400 masters degree students in Australia, Singapore, HK, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have taken advantage of this stream to obtain the CMA certification along with their Masters degree.

The ICMA has recently sponsored the setting-up of Calwest University in Northridge, California, USA; specifically for CMA members to read for an MBA. CMA members get 8 out 12 courses exempted, and must do only 4 further courses for their MBA.

For those interested see Calwest MBA.