Purdue University’s business school said it would stop admitting students to its two-year resident M.B.A. program for the 2021 academic year.
Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK/ReutersSeveral U.S. business schools have closed their struggling full-time M.B.A. programs in recent months, and the coronavirus outbreak may endanger more.
Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management 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 news followed announcements by the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business and the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business in Minnesota, both of which said they wouldn’t admit a new M.B.A. class this fall.
The pandemic accelerated Purdue’s decision to shut down its traditional M.B.A. and focus on other graduate and undergraduate degrees, said Tim Newton, a spokesman for the Krannert school.
“I don’t think we’ll be the last school to pause our M.B.A. program,” he said. “Within the next five or 10 years, there will only be a pretty select group of residential M.B.A. programs left. A lot of schools outside of the top 20 or 30 will struggle to keep afloat.”
Purdue’s business school, like many of its peers, has been under pressure for years amid weak demand. Applications to Krannert’s full-time M.B.A. program have dropped 70% since 2009, Dean David Hummels wrote in an open letter to students, faculty and alumni. Increased competition for business-school applicants, particularly U.S. students, has raised the financial resources needed to market the degree to prospective students, as well as pay them scholarships and assistantships to choose Purdue.
“We now spend considerably more to recruit a class than we generate in tuition revenue from that class,” Mr. Hummels wrote. “That is simply not sustainable, particularly in light of significant financial adjustments that are necessary in the wake of the Covid pandemic.”
High tuition costs and—until March—a hot job market had resulted in years of declining applications to many full-time M.B.A. programs, especially at those not considered Tier 1 programs, such as Harvard Business School. Taking two years out of a career and spending anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000 to go back to school and pay living costs in some high-rent cities was deemed too great a price to pay by many young professionals.
The declines led more than 100 business schools to shutter their two-year M.B.A. programs between 2014 and 2018, the latest figures available according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The group said it would publish new data in the fall. In a May AACSB survey of more than 220 business schools, nearly half said they were anticipating enrollment would slide in 2020.
One big reason for the expected drop comes from the loss of international students amid travel restrictions related to Covid-19 and difficulty obtaining visas during the pandemic and tense political climate. Overseas students accounted for nearly 40% of all applicants to U.S. business schools in 2019, and they often pay full tuition and fees.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said last week that new international students won’t be allowed to come to the U.S. if their courses will be taught entirely online. Earlier this month, ICE issued—then rescinded—new rules that would have forced all international students to leave the country if their universities chose to keep instruction remote in the fall, which experts have said could have a chilling effect that keeps overseas students out of the U.S.
During past recessions, applications to business schools soared, mainly because the degree was seen as a viable way to help further a career even as the job market languished. But the coronavirus, which has shut down some campuses and upended many in-person college class schedules, makes the outlook for most business schools even dimmer, said Tim Westerbeck, president of higher-education consulting firm Eduvantis. Much of what an M.B.A. offers to students is a chance for face-to-face instruction and building a new network of contacts on campus—features that Covid is erasing for many programs.
“Management education is overbuilt. Before Covid even hit, the industry had been turned on its head,” Mr. Westerbeck said. “Covid piled on top of that is perhaps the death of a percentage of schools that just aren’t going to make it competitively and financially.”
In a spring survey of about 50 business school deans conducted by Eduvantis, nearly half said the pandemic would accelerate business-school closures. Some large public schools similar to Purdue, such as programs at other Big Ten universities, could be next to fold, Mr. Westerbeck said.
Despite the dour forecast for many U.S. M.B.A. programs, several admissions experts predict that top-tier schools will be able to ride out the pandemic and may even see a surge in applications. Caroline Diarte Edward, an admissions consultant for Fortuna Admissions and the former director of admissions for the Insead business school’s M.B.A. program in France, said some of the elite business schools may see record-breaking application increases for 2021. Fortuna has had a 75% increase in inquiries about their admissions consulting services, she added. Applications to the Yale School of Management were flat going into the spring, but are now up about 10% for the year since the pandemic, said Bruce DelMonico, an assistant dean of admissions.
“There’s the market for top schools, then the market for everyone else,” she said. “Candidates want to go to a top school, or they aren’t going to get an M.B.A.”
Competition for U.S. students is so fierce, there will be a trickle-down effect if Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business enroll fewer overseas students and more domestic applicants, said Stacey Koprince of Manhattan Prep, which helps applicants study for entrance exams.
“Schools a level down from HBS and Stanford will potentially see a downtick if those schools start taking more from a more competitive applicant pool,” she said.
Write to Patrick Thomas at Patrick.Thomas@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"Shut" - Google News
July 29, 2020 at 08:00PM
https://ift.tt/3jSV3az
Covid-19 Prompted Purdue University to Shut Its M.B.A. Program. More Closures Are Expected. - The Wall Street Journal
"Shut" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3d35Me0
https://ift.tt/2WkO13c
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Covid-19 Prompted Purdue University to Shut Its M.B.A. Program. More Closures Are Expected. - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment