Are MBA fairs anachronistic? The question of whether these encounters — between discerning candidates and business schools selling the virtues of their courses — are beyond their sell-by date has become a matter of controversy.

The internet has made researching what schools have to offer as easy as a few clicks of a computer mouse.

Or has it? Not so, says Simon Stockley, full-time MBA course director at Imperial College Business School.

Fairs are as useful as they have ever been simply because there is no substitute for human contact, he says.

“People buy people. If you meet a candidate, show an interest in them, listen to what they want and give completely impartial advice, then that is what gets results.

“Going to fairs is much more about listening than it is about telling; understanding what people want and being very honest with them if your programme is not right for them.

“There have been occasions when people have come to fairs and said, ‘I am thinking about Imperial, these are my objectives and this is my background’, and I have to say to them, ‘Well, I am sorry, but I think you might be better off talking to so and so’. Ultimately, people respect and appreciate honesty.”

Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs, says that more and more candidates have been coming to MBA fairs because of the difficult economic climate.

“Although there are more online sources of information they still feel the need to come to fairs,” she says. “However, the kind of visitor has changed,” she adds.

Five to six years ago people turned up at fairs asking questions such as what exactly is an MBA?

“Now people do more research before they come and have probably identified two or three business schools to choose from. And they visit the stands of those specific business schools to get their particular questions answered.”

Maggi Preddy, MBA admissions and marketing manager at Bath University’s School of Management, says: “MBA prospects are very web-savvy and intuitive about their use of the internet to compare and contrast information across all programmes.”

Zoya Zaitseva is global operations manager for the organiser of the fairs, QS World MBA Tour, for which The Times is the media partner, She says: “However much time the candidates spend online it still does not give them a sense of the school’s culture. Without talking to the admissions officers, current students and alumni, it’s difficult to understand whether they would be comfortable in that particular environment or not.

“If you look at the websites of five to ten business schools they can look much the same. How do you know whether this school has a teamworking or a competitive environment? ”

Rachael Killian, MBA marketing and recruitment manager at Warwick Business School, says: “The fairs are about the face to face contact that gives candidates intangibles about a school.”

‘I wanted to check that they were nice’

Rebecca Crallan, 32, went to an MBA fair in Manchester last summer to find out whether Warwick Business School was the place to do an Executive MBA.

A scientist with a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge and a doctorate from the University of York, Crallan wanted to show her business acumen by acquiring a business qualification.

Crallan, who now works in the business strategy development department of a York-based company that designs medical devices, says: “I had a good idea already that Warwick was my top choice but I wanted to check that the people running the school were not really odd, that they didn’t have two heads and they were nice, approachable people.

“I just wanted to make sure it looked like a professional operation.

“I checked some things I had read — that you could, for example, be flexible about when you could take specific modules.

“It’s one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I’m really enjoying it.”