Another 2-Year MBA Program Downsizes To 1

The Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona is the latest B-school to pare down its flagship MBA program from two years to one

The Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona will be slimming down in the new year.

Beginning in 2025, the school’s MBA will be a one-year program, a move the school says is ideal for professionals and recent graduates alike, as both groups largely seek to limit their time away from the workforce. Eller joins a number of U.S. B-schools that have downsized their full-time MBA programs in recent years in favor of the sleeker, more flexible programs favored by students today.

Eller’s new Accelerated MBA will welcome its first cohort next summer.

A GROWING TREND

The Smeal College of Business at Penn State University was among the more high-profile MBA downsizings in the last two years. In 2022, Smeal designated its MBA as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degree at the same time it cut it down to one year from two, after losing nearly half its enrollment over two years from 2020 to 2022. But they aren’t finished tinkering at Smeal. On December 3, the B-school announced it will add a hybrid MBA to its portfolio of MBA programs beginning in fall 2025, offering virtual learning with the networking and social structure of an in-person cohort program, on a schedule designed for working professionals.

Around the same time Smeal was contemplating its downsizing, the University of Connecticut School of Business was in the process of shuttering its traditional two-year MBA and redirecting its resources into two 42-credit programs: a 100% Online MBA and a part-time Flex MBA, the latter a hybrid program available in Hartford, Stamford, and online. The results of UConn’s dramatic redesign have been amazing: In 2024, it matriculated over 100 OMBA students, marking a 14% increase from the previous fall, while the Flex program has experienced 34% growth since 2023. In total, UConn now has 727 total active MBA students — 226 online and 501 in the Flex — compared to fewer than 100 in its last year of the full-time MBA.

Neither Smeal nor UConn made unprecedented moves. The University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business announced in 2017 that it was admitting its last full-time cohort in 2019, focusing instead on growing its part-time program and specialized masters offerings. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gies eliminated both its full- and part-time MBA programs in 2019, devoting more resources to its disruptive online MBA program. Wake Forest exited the full-time market in 2014 after enrollments there fell from 144 in 2009 to 114 five years later. Virginia Tech and Simmons College also shut down their full-time, on-campus MBA programs in recent years.

‘AN EXCITING EVOLUTION’

Arizona’s Eller College — No. 66 in Poets&Quants‘ 2025 MBA ranking, released December 3, and No. 31 in our latest entrepreneurship ranking — promises its new one-year program will deliver a complete MBA experience in half the time of the former program, which took 21 months to complete. That means grads will join a robust network of more than 300,000 Wildcats in 150 countries worldwide that much sooner.

“The launch of our One-Year MBA program marks an exciting evolution at the Eller College,” says Karthik Kannan, dean and Halle Chair in Leadership of the Eller College. “In response to growing demand for flexible business education, we’ve created an accelerated program that meets the needs of ambitious professionals who want to fast-track their careers.”

Applications are now open for the summer 2025 intake of the Eller Accelerated MBA. For program details and enrollment information, visit eller.arizona.edu.

DON’T MISS ANATOMY OF AN MBA MAKEOVER: UCONN’S FLEX & OMBA PROGRAMS and PENN STATE’S SMEAL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS TO DOWNSIZE ITS MBA FROM 2 YEARS TO 1