Total MBA Pay Above Pre-Crash Levels

‘I WOULD NOT EXPECT A TSUNAMI OF DEMAND FOR DISTANCE PROGRAMS’

Danos is also more upbeat about the future than others because he does not believe that technology will have the disruptive effects on business education as predicted by Haas’ Lyons or Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. As evidence of the confidence that university officials maintain in on-campus programs he cited the massive investments business schools have made and are continuing to make in new, modern facilities. Over the next few years, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School, and London Business School all will move into brand new multi-million-dollar buildings and campuses.

“Technological advances may change the scale and reach of our schools in the future, but to now the impact of technology has been mostly in how we teach,” he told the conference. “Many people in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, before the dot-com bust, predicted that digital delivery would take dominate education, and that didn’t happen.

“Four years ago, it was MOOC’s that were to dominate our world and that did not happen, and now it is distance education. Yes, the potential is there but I would not expect a tsunami of demand for distance programs, except as an adjunct to an ever-expanding demand for business education in general, the vast majority of which will be delivered face-to-face, with technology used to prep classes, i.e. flipped classes.”

‘SPENDING TIME ON A CAMPUS IS STILL A KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS EDUCATION’

Danos said that “with all of the talk of technological change spawning alternatives, the top-rated MBA programs in the U.S. have stayed much the same in size and location. Spending time on a campus with fellow students and in close proximity with faculty is still a key to a successful business education, although exceptions by means of modern distance education are emerging. As proof of the value of place, billions have been spent on campus buildings, and I am sure that billions more will be spent again as our economies fully stabilize after the recession retreats into history. But having said that, technology will ultimately play a bigger and bigger role in delivery of education.”

He also called competition among schools for the best new faculty “a dogfight” and defended the mainstream model of business education to attract and cultivate professors who do deep research in their fields. “Some would say that teaching and not research is the most important function of a modern faculty member, but the prestigious researcher is as much in demand today as ever, with a dogfight among schools for the top research faculty when they come on the market,” Danos said.

“Long-term prestige of degree-granting programs is as closely tied to the research reputation of faculty as ever, and I see no waning of this feature of our world. And this is crucial: the programs where traditional academics are in charge such as our top-rated MBA programs are vibrant and up-to-date. So a research faculty is not only compatible with strong teaching programs but in many cases they are what makes them great.

A STRONG DEFENSE OF THE RESEARCH CULTURE OF AMERICAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS

“Many of these professors are also wonderful teachers, but if you gauge their professional effort, you would find that a high percentage of all their time is devoted to studying unanswered business questions. MBA students are not usually given much insight into their professors’ research methodology, because it is mostly beyond the bounds of traditional classroom coverage. I find that unfortunate, and I’ll tell you why.

“Broadly speaking, business professors are experts in how to explore the limits of knowledge in important fields. Their students should be introduced to that expertise, because they have a lot to gain from learning how knowledge is created, and how the value of business techniques can be developed and tested. This sort of learning differs from the valuable analytical skills most MBA courses develop.”

Danos says he believes that one of the greater opportunities for growth among business schools is in providing basics to undergraduates with little to no business knowhow. “Many students from top liberal arts programs want courses and even majors and minors in business,” he said. “Of course, the traditional BBAs and individual business school courses are very popular on campuses throughout the world. Employers want students to be better prepared for their first positions, and are less willing to engage in significant and expensive basic training. This change in taste by both companies and students may be a function of the recession, or it may be a permanent shift. I would guess that it will persist for a long time.”

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