NewsRelease from PR Newswire (United Business Media)
MBA for Working Professionals or "part- time" MBA programs will continue growing in the New Year, as will the number of executives in MBA classrooms. Those were two of the findings in a recent survey of MBA Deans and program directors conducted by Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business in conjunction with the MBAWP (MBA for Working Professionals) Affinity Group of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the premier accrediting agency for business schools in the United States.
According to Robinson Dean H. Fenwick Huss, "Approximately 80% of today's MBA students are going to school part-time. The cost of full-time studying, in forgone salary as well as tuition, is just too great for a lot of prospects to consider full-time programs. In addition," said Huss, "as the survey indicates, the reputation of part-time programs has risen over the past five years, making them more attractive than ever."
Huss also noted that "former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, who taught at MIT's Sloan School of Management, may be the most high-profile executive in the classroom, but he won't be alone." The majority (70%) of respondents in the Robinson AACSB survey say they expect to see more executives turned b- school instructors over the next five years. Additionally, 77% of the deans surveyed say they would support changes in the accreditation standards to make that happen.
Other survey highlights:
* Competition from on-line programs is a real fear of more than half the
deans surveyed. Others say regional and local schools pose the greatest
competition to MBAWP programs.
* More women are seeking their MBAs and doing it while working. Enrollment
of women has increased at 56% of the schools surveyed, while numbers of
women and minorities has remained substantially the same.
* Adapting curriculum at the speed needed to keep pace with business
changes ranks as one of the top challenges for 51% of the deans surveyed.
* Making students feel an attachment to the school is another of the
biggest problems for today's MBAWP b-school deans.
There were 105 respondents to the survey (38%), 66% are deans with public institutions and 34% with private. Additionally, 47% are located in a major market with most respondents (43%) representing MBAWP programs with 200 - 500 students.
The J. Mack Robinson College of Business is one of the top-ranked business schools in the nation. The College's Flex (part-time) MBA program has been listed in the top ten by U.S. News for the past eleven years and its undergraduate business program is ranked among the top 50 in the nation. Robinson's Executive MBA program is listed among the world's best by The Financial Times. Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business has an enrollment of approximately 7000 students and has classroom facilities in downtown Atlanta, Alpharetta, Brookhaven and Henry County. http://www.robinson.gsu.edu/
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