World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellows Master's Programme - accreditation?

Is anyone familiar with the World Economic Forum's Global Leadership Fellows Programme? Do you know whether it has any proper accreditation? http://www.weforum.org/en/about/Glob...lows/index.htm

As far as I am aware it has no accreditation at all. It is a totally private initiative with the masters awarded by the WEF itself.

Is it of any use to you? That depends entirely on what your future employer will think of something awarded by the WEF on its own merits. There are examples on the site of grads whose employers clearly take the view that the backing of the WEF and the merits of the program meet their needs. Is the WEF's backing enough for you? Only you can decide.

It is similar to the former situation of INSEAD which had no accreditation until a few years back, but still scored stellar acceptance and esteem for its MBA.

However, if you are looking for a program that holds formal accreditation, I would look elsewhere, and be prepared to fork out considerable $$$$ whatever the case.

Thank you for your insight. I did not know that INSEAD until recently lacked accreditation.
I assume that the WEF is respected within certain business/political/ngo/thinktank circles. How is it generally perceived by the public at large who actually know of it?

For what I would say is a pretty measured "public at large" perception, the Wikipedia article is worth a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum

Note particularly under Criticism:

"The Annual Meeting [in Davos] has also been decried as a “mix of pomp and platitude” and criticized for moving away from serious economics and accomplishing little of substance, particularly with the increasing involvement of NGOs that have little or no expertise in economics. Instead of a discussion on the world economy with knowledgeable experts alongside key business and political players, Davos now features the top media political causes of the day (such as global climate change and AIDS in Africa)."

Oh, and Bono doesn't like it.

But the impression I get is that it's a little too starstruck to keep the core mission in mind as much as I'd like. It's politics and media-driven, not economics-driven. That could give a grad high-profile recognition in some circles, but not necessarily economic ones.

The WEF seems to be a collection of self-important people, like Bilderbergers. I do remember what Bono said a few years ago. It is somewhat ironic that intellectually pretentious organizations use people like Bono and Angelina Jolie to promote their agendas.