MBAs Turn Away From Wall Street

Changing Course: Business Schools Cut Programs

 

For years, it seemed like every business school was adding new programs. Part-time MBAs…Executive MBAs…Online Courses…Business Analytics…Sustainability – You name it! Sure, these programs goosed revenue streams, but they also required greater overhead. With enrollments starting to slide, MBA programs are adopting a new strategy to better compete in saturated markets:  Scaling back.

Take Loyola University’s Quinlan School of Business, for example. Based in Chicago, Loyola had been operating an executive MBA program in Kenosha, Wisconsin for 15 years. When Loyola began offering that degree in Chicago in 2011, enrollment plummeted in Kenosha. As a result, Loyola shuttered their Kenosha program.

Loyola’s experience reflects a key downside for schools seeking to aggressively grow their MBA programs: They tend to cannibalize overlapping programs. At Temple University’s Fox School of Business, for example, the administration cancelled a specialized master’s in MIS after discovering that many students were enrolling in a similar program run by a different discipline. In other words, they were recruiting the same students.

However, schools are also trimming their specialty programs to free up resources. According to Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of the IE Business School in Madrid, combining or eliminating programs provides schools with greater flexibility: “Schools that want to be at the cutting edge of the market need to change their curriculum much more frequently.” This approach also enables schoolsto pursue more lucrative markets. At New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, the administration chose to cut a program catering to engineers, converting those specialty courses into electives. In turn, the school re-directed the savings to driving up enrollment in the larger MBA program. It was a win-win: Reducing entrenched overhead without sacrificing a steady engineering segment.

Like the businesses they study, MBA programs are realizing that they’re competing for a finite student pool with dwindling resources. Kathleen Getz, Loyola’s business school dean, sums it best: “The market was telling us something…and it’s time we start practicing what we preach.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Laura Tyson Heads New Social and Environmental Center at UC Berkeley

 

If Miami of Ohio is the cradle of football coaches, then the University of California at Berkeley must be the cradle of economic advisors. Democratic Presidents have already plucked Haas professors Laura Tyson, Christina Romer, and Janet Yellen to chair the Council of Economic Advisors. Last month, Yellen was tapped to chair the Federal Reserve. Impressive to say the least!

After returning to Haas in 2007, Tyson is now taking on a bigger challenge at the school.  Recently, Tyson was named the Director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact. The Institute is designed to foster solutions to business, social, and environmental issues through teaching, student projects, and research. What’s more, the institute will better integrate the efforts of Haas’ Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, Center for Responsible Business, Graduate Program in Health Management, and the Global Social Venture Competition.

In particular, Tyson intends to lean on Haas’ close ties to other disciplines at Berkeley to funnel the best ideas and research on social impact into the institute. Tyson believes that by “bringing together faculty from a breadth of specialisms, the institute will act as a bridge between the for-profit, non-profit and public sectors. Solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems require partnership between [all three sectors].” In the end, Tyson also hopes to help students develop the right skills and mindset to become responsible business leaders.

The Institute will also address the connection between women and the economy, with initiatives designed to advance women in corporate management, entrepreneurship, and non-profit leadership. It is being funded through $1.1 million dollars in gifts from Berkeley alumni.

Along with chairing the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration, Tyson has also served as the Director of the National Economic Council and the Dean for both the Haas School of Business and The London Business School.

Source: PoetsandQuants