What a Post-COVID-19 MBA Looks Like

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the MBA.

With courses cut short and face masks becoming the norm, the b-school education will look different.

But just how different will the future look and how are b-schools preparing for tomorrow’s MBA?

Business Insider recently spoke to experts on what a post-COVID-19 may look like.

VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS

With many classes switching online, experts say one thing is for certain: b-schools will have an increased emphasis on online learning.

“The traditional model of teaching is being challenged,” Wendy Moe, associate dean of master’s programs and dean’s professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, tells Business Insider. “Lectures that can easily be recorded will give way to carefully designed synchronous activities that engage the students’ critical thinking and analytical skills. This ‘flipped’ model of the classroom has been slowly making its way into MBA education over the past few years, but the move online due to the pandemic is accelerating that change.”

EFFECT ON SMALLER B-SCHOOLS

B-schools will need to adapt to the new normal of virtual learning. And while many top-ranked b-schools are investing heavily in virtual learning, experts say, smaller b-schools may not have the funds to adapt as quickly.

“Low-end schools will be out of business,” Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Stanford University, tells Business Insider. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

Additionally, experts say, smaller b-schools may decide to focus less on global presence and more on a regional one.

“Virtual learning technology and global marketing cost money, so richer and forward-looking schools will have even a bigger advantage,” Paul Bodine, president and founder of Admitify, an admissions consultancy in San Diego, tells Business Insider. “Post-COVID-19, less-resourced schools may decide that building a robust virtual classroom is not worthwhile and may focus less on branding themselves as ‘global’ business schools. They may begin emphasizing the benefits of region-focused management education [with] less dependence on international students, fewer concerns about logistics, less need to compete economically with the global powerhouse schools.”

Read more about the post-COVID-19 MBA here.

Sources: Business Insider, Poets & Quants, Poets & Quants