There may be an element of overstatement in the headline but this article contains some valid reasoning and presents a powerful case. It is meant to refer to US Business Schools but the arguments are equally relevant to the UK and the rest of Europe. The smaller Business Schools, without the benefit of a strong brand, may fail and the reason is the growth of online learning.
Up until
now, the major US schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Wharton have not
offered MBAs on line but the author believes that this will change as the
previous downmarket reputation of online degrees is turned around. He also believes that the top schools will be
unable to resist the pressure to go online; some are ‘slowly warming to the
digital world’ and competition will cause all the top names to follow suit.
If this
trend does continue, the minor league schools will suffer badly. A bright student who lives in Milwaukee and
now takes the local route will be faced with a choice; would my job prospects
be best improved by a ‘face to face’ MBA course from the University of Milwaukee
or an online degree from Harvard? The
answer is the latter, whatever the relative learning and social benefits of the
two methods.
There
will also be financial benefits for the top schools as long as the new online
students are incremental to existing numbers; and, knowing the difficulty of
being accepted on the best MBA courses, this will be probably be solved by more
flexible admission criteria. The author
does however fail to mention the potential impact of this development on the
reputation of the top schools; if Harvard go online, will it be seen as a
‘proper’ Harvard degree and will it dilute their reputation as one of the top
business schools? The answer may
determine whether the author’s forecast really will materialise; I have a
suspicion that the really big names may stay out of online MBAs for a long time
yet, maybe for ever, and it will be the second rank schools that will take the
virtual route.
It is
perhaps symptomatic of the insular nature of US business education that the
article does not mention the other big threat to the top US Schools – the competition
from similar institutions in other countries for their overseas students, who
pay higher fees and represent a large proportion of volume. As schools like INSEAD and LBS cement their
international reputations, developing countries lure faculty for their own
schools and global companies design their own courses, there could be an even
bigger threat to all US Business Schools, not just the minor ones.
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