Media Coverage

The most elite business schools that commonly sit atop the major MBA rankings have been slow to enter the online degree space. UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business only announced in July that it would offer an online option in its part-time MBA program next fall. The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, currently the school with the highest ranked full-time MBA in the online MBA market, saw its first student complete its online MBA in August.

But the top five programs–Stanford, Chicago Booth, Wharton, Harvard and Northwestern Kellogg–have yet to even publicly express an interest in launching an online version of their MBA programs. Nonetheless, a new survey of more than 80 business schools deans finds that 61% anticipate that a Top 5 ranked business school will offer a fully online MBA within the next one to two years. The percentage soars to 89% when the timeframe moves to three to four years (see chart below).

“If this happens as anticipated,” concludes the higher education consulting firm Eduvantis, which conducted the survey, “it will further accelerate the disruption and market share shifts that have already been set in motion.”

“Corporate leaders and hiring managers often report a gap existing between what they need from their new hires and what those individuals are able to do once onboard,” explains Tim Westerbeck, president of Eduvantis, a higher education consulting firm. “They report a great deal of retraining and even fundamental education required, along with a sometimes significant lag time between the hiring date and the period at which high productivity can be expected—this gap needs to be closed by business schools if they seek to remain relevant and competitive.”

“The belief that online degrees aren’t as valuable as traditional ones was already fading as students desired more-flexible schedules and lower-priced degrees, said Tim Westerbeck, president of higher-education consulting firm Eduvantis.”

Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management in Indiana said last month that it would stop admitting students to its two-year resident M.B.A. program for the 2021 academic year, making it one of the most high-profile schools yet to close its program.

“The survey, conducted by higher-education consulting and digital marketing firm Eduvantis, surveyed deans about the spread of the coronavirus’s impact on business education.”

For schools making moves away from campus coursework toward online alternatives, it’s not happening without friction.

According to Eduvantis, monthly Internet searches around terms like “dual degree” doubled from 2007 to 2014. In the past year, searches for “MBA/computer science” grew by 22 percent, and there was an 86 percent jump in interest in “MBA/engineering.”

After spending years adding new programs in an attempt to boost enrollment and capitalize on untapped revenue streams, deans say the efforts often confused prospective students or distracted administrators.

Female deans “are more likely to create cultures that are more open to new ideas,” says Tim Westerbeck, president of Eduvantis, LLC, a consulting firm for business schools.