Another Top-50 MBA Program Joins STEM Tsunami

The UC-Davis Graduate School of Management lost 13.5% of its application volume between 2018 and 2019. UC-Davis photo

HOW STEM DESIGNATION WORKS, AND WHY IT MIGHT BE A SHORT TREND

The STEM Optional Practical Training program is available to eligible F-1 visa students with STEM degrees from accredited U.S. colleges or universities. The OPT program itself was launched in 1992; in 2008, Michael Chertoff, then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, controversially extended the program by 17 months for graduates of STEM-certified programs. The extension was expanded to 24 months in 2016. Eligible business school graduates may apply for the additional two years of work on top of the initial one-year, post-completion OPT granted to all non-STEM-degree F-1 visa students; to be eligible, they must have a STEM degree from an accredited U.S. school and must secure employment with an employer that includes a minimum of 20 hours of work per week and formal training within the STEM field.

The OPT program is seen as a way for B-school grads to acquire an H-1B visa, which are limited by law. In 2017, 180,440 new H-1B visas were issued. But according to just-released data by the Institute of International Education, the policy changes allowing STEM students to remain in the U.S. on OPT opportunities for three years after the completion of their studies is the likely biggest factor driving a massive increase in students on OPT programs, which increased by 9.6% to 223,085 between 2016-2017 and 2018-2019.

In 2014, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers sued Homeland Security, saying it exceeded its authority in both the establishment of the STEM OPT program and later extensions. WashTech’s lawsuit challenging the legality of OPT — filed because the union, which represents computer programmers, says the program hurts American tech workers — was allowed to proceed in July 2019 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The court set a deadline of October 25 for accepting amicus curiae briefs, which are arguments written by outside parties seeking to influence the court’s decision. A decision on the case is expected in May.

Big Tech, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, have been granted the right to participate in the case; they argue that the OPT is a vital pathway for highly skilled international workers to put their talents to work helping the U.S. economy. But Ron Hira, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University, says the program is ripe for exploitation by schools and employers looking to get around visa restrictions.

“There are some questions about whether the OPT really should exist at all, because it was supposed to be a pilot project back in the early 90s,” Hira, who studies the program, tells Poets&Quants. “From my point of view, aside from the legal stuff, I think you can justify — from an educational standpoint — 12 months, that there’s some training and all that makes some sense. I think it’s really a huge stretch to argue that someone needs 36 months for training internships.”

‘A SMART MOVE TO OFFSET THE FALL IN APPLICANT VOLUME’

Paul Bodine, founder and CEO of consultancy Admitify, says he doesn’t see any compelling reason why B-schools should not designate their MBA programs as STEM, since their peers are doing it and since the downside is minor to nonexistent. Bottom line? “I see the mad rush for STEM designation by business schools as a smart move to offset the fall in applicant volume since the 2016 election,” Bodine tells Poets&Quants.

“Schools are getting fewer international applicants because of the U.S. immigration climate and they need/want diverse and international classes from a revenue and learning effectiveness perspective. Because the STEM designation enables graduates from those programs to work longer in the U.S. through the OPT, STEM-designated MBA programs are hopefully offsetting the ‘brain drain’ of talented non-U.S. applicants who might otherwise consider earning MBAs in more immigrant-friendly countries. The eligibility for foreign MBAs from STEM business schools to work in the U.S. for three years increases those students’ odds of building long-term careers in the U.S., which is still the strongest and most innovative economy on the planet.

“This is a smart move by schools to sweeten the pot and optimize the career opportunities for non-U.S. MBAs — and also a smart way to protect their own profit center in overseas applicants.”

NO CHANGE IN CURRICULUM AT UC-DAVIS

Dean Unnava at UC-Davis says the move to STEM will not involve any change in curriculum because “everything is already there. It’s exactly what we have. We haven’t added a single course now. That’s especially why we were motivated to make the entire MBA program STEM because the curriculum justified it.”

In the eight-month-to-a-year process, input from international students and applicants who were admitted — some of whom did not enroll — played a big part in the decision too, Unnava says.

“When we were talking to students we had admitted, there were students from China and India asking if we had STEM designation,” he says. “And they were saying that they would much rather go to a school that has the STEM designation. And we thought that’s fine. But what was interesting was, we actually went and spent some time with some other stakeholders who asked us about it and told us that it would be a good thing as far as they are concerned for an MBA program to be STEM-designated. And that’s when we actually started moving in this direction.

“Everybody is saying that the applicants are down by significant amounts. And my view is that a market shakeup that will happen because I really trust the value of the two useful dynamics: I think the MBA delivers significant education experiences and does prepare leaders, because of the way it gets all put together. And once the shakeup happens and some of the lower-ranked programs wind down, I think that the demand will be adequate for other programs.”

DON’T MISS STEM MBA PROGRAMS AT U.S. B-SCHOOLS

AND SEE P&Q’s COVERAGE OF TOP B-SCHOOLS’ EMBRACE OF STEM:

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL

NYU STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TUCK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ROSS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

UC-BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

UNC KENAN-FLAGLER BUSINESS SCHOOL

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY TEPPER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

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