Pavel Ulukaev's former employer paid half of the $15 thousand course fee for his MBA. The former brand manager gained his diploma just before the crisis saw companies cut spending on employee education. He is disappointed by the quality of the course.

“In my opinion, MBA should give you practical skills to use them in current business situation. I actually did not get them. Thus program was very much alike my first basis education.”

Now Pavel is making ends meet with freelance marketing projects. In his experience, companies are looking for candidates with time on the job rather than academic qualifications. Mikhail Zhukov, CEO, of recruitment firm HeadHunter, says Pavels observations are about right

“Only 3% of companies prefer employees with MBA diploma. All the rest look at practical experience.”

And not all MBAs are equal. Companies tend to classify them as either Russian or international, and have criticisms of both. They say a European MBA is not optimised for the Russian business environment, whilst the Russian MBA is not “mature” and too “academic”.

Experts predict demand for MBAs to recover in 2010 when Russia’s economy is expected to emerge from recession. Until then, business education will be risky investment.