The B-School Future: A Hybrid Approach

Hybrid online and on-campus classes will be the norm for many MBA programs this fall.

Seb Murray of Find MBA spoke to business school officials on what the fall semester might look like for many students.

BLENDED APPROACH

B-schools, such as Emory’s Goizueta and the Wisconsin School of Business, have all announced plans to launch a mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote classes in the upcoming future.

Experts say the flexible approach offers options as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve with uncertainty.

“We’re convinced that even after things return to something approaching normalcy, many of the creative, digital-delivery aspects of this year will be incorporated into our future approach,” Christoph Loch, the dean of  the Cambridge Judge Business School in the UK, tells Find MBA.

With so much uncertainty, many experts say that the future is difficult to predict.

“We need to acknowledge that we might not yet have all the answers to the many complex questions triggered by the pandemic,” Eric Cornuel, president of the European Foundation for Management Development in Belgium, tells Find MBA. “As in any crisis, transparency and communication are key.”

MBA DEMAND STILL RISING

Despite all the uncertainty, the demand for MBA degrees continues to rise.

Experts say that’s because of the economic recession produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The economic dislocation has been so dramatic and uncertainty so high that people are inclined to sit on the sidelines and jump in the game a year from now,” Bill Boulding, dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, tells Find MBA.

At the Rotterdam School of Management, school officials are preparing for last-minute decisions by admits to either defer or drop plans to attend b-school – despite numbers that show demand is rising.

It’s extremely difficult to plan ahead because people are deciding almost at the last minute whether to enroll,” Richter tells Find MBA. “But the fact that we are seeing a year-over-year increase in demand, amid all the uncertainty, gives me hope.”

Sources: Find MBA, P&Q, P&Q, Forbes