Online offerings disrupt business schools and cause MBA “unbundling”
In a meeting held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, education officials came to a consensus that as the growth of purely online programmes has declined, a hybrid of online learning resources and class-based lessons are “the future”. This has caused a number of US universities to “unbundle” MBA courses particularly, with elite institutions such as Harvard partnering with public institutions to expand credential options outside of traditional structure. The associate dean of executive education at the Kellogg School of Management stated: “We have to keep pushing ourselves to advance the efficacy and better understand where online adds to the effectiveness of a class”.

Dive Brief:

A number of universities are looking to unbundle elements of the contemporary MBA degree, with schools like Harvard partnering with public institutions like Boise State to expand credential options outside of traditional structure, Campus Technology reports .

Campus Technology reports Harvard’s open-source online program, HBX, has partnered with Boise State to enhance the public school’s business curriculum, while other schools like Columbia University are partnering with multiple bootcamp vendors to break down degree offerings into smaller credential-granting academies.

Experts do not believe that there will be a total disruption of traditional business education, but that the marketplace will grow to value a hybrid experience of open-source and onsite business educational training.

Dive Insight:

It would appear that a majority of higher education, outside of applied sciences where laboratory and experiential space is required, could be shifting toward a hybrid model of offering. The typical student profile is shifting to where most students will be working professionals who need easier access to instruction, but much in the way that other countries have shifted credentialing priority from administration to management in business, the United States could be undergoing a similar change in training priority.

Colleges should look for other opportunities to create student pipelines from high schools or community colleges to offer hybrid business training in a variety of liberal arts and applied science majors, creating an even greater interest in the advanced business degree or credential programs for undergraduates on the verge of completion.