Most PhD students receive some sort of stipend during their tenure at the university. My question is, how is the stipend distributed in most universities? Is it in a lump-sum form (i.e 23000 per year given just like that) or is it on a monthly/quarterly basis?

I graduated with an undergraduate honours degree in Business and Economics and I'm currently working as a management consultant. My passion and interest has always been in academia and I have longed to always return back for my post grad studies in order to pursue my academic ambition. I have been working for about 3 years now and I plan to return back to business academia in the Fall of 2010.

My question is, do I need an MBA? The reason I'm asking this is because I have been away from school for quite sometime and because I plan to continue right up to my doctorate studies, I'm not too sure whether jumping into a 1-year Masters program would be the right thing to do as I'm afraid I will not be able to immediately cope with the academic rigour. But at the same time, I find an MBA irrelevant because I don't plan to use it in enhancing my corporate career (I am going into Business Academia remember?). But then again, most masters are requesting for recommendations, specifically academic recommendations and I don't have any to be honest. (I wouldn't count what my prof wrote of me 4 years ago as a true reflection of myself today).

So should I go for the MBA? Or should I just try for the masters straight away?

By the way, I'm applying to Canadian institutions.