At many colleges and universities, the traditional graduate business degree has fallen on hard times. So schools are recruiting potential students everywhere, The Washington Post reports.
Applications to U.S. MBA programs dropped 7% last year, sliding downward for the fourth consecutive year, according to a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit that oversees the GMAT admissions exam. Full-time MBA programs seem to be in the most trouble, with more than 70% of business schools reporting a decline in applications in 2017.
After more than three decades of surging enrollment in MBA programs, some business leaders and university officials are wondering if the credential has peaked. But not all programs face the same headwinds.
“The schools that haven’t added concentrations, gone online or offered more flexible pathways to a degree are the ones struggling,” Nancy Albers, dean of the College of Business, Education and Human Development at LSU-Shreveport told The Washington Post. At LSU-S, enrollment in the online MBA has grown from some 400 students in 2014 to more than 3,000 today.
At LSU’s Flores MBA Program in Baton Rouge, program director Dana Hart says via email to Daily Report that in the five years since launching an online MBA format enrollment has grown.
“The landscape is changing,” Hart says. “As our online program grows, our full-time, professional, and executive MBA programs have leveled-off.”
Hart says some factors that contribute to the changing MBA market are a better hiring market for those finishing undergraduate degrees, high competition among institutions, a proliferation of specialized master’s degrees and certificates, fewer international student applicants and eroding value for candidates who can no longer reconcile the opportunity costs of attending a two-year, full-time format.
In addition to the online option, LSU will launch a one-year accelerated MBA format for business majors in June 2019, and a more consistent hybrid model in its Executive MBA format, Hart says.
