Amid Steep International Declines, Illinois Gies Bets Big On Online Growth

For Nerissa Brown, who became executive associate dean of academic programs at the University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business in August 2025, the duality of graduate education couldn’t be clearer.

“Our on-campus programs are primarily supported by international enrollments,” she says. “We’re down a good clip this year — pretty much down by like 25%. Some programs are down by 30 to 50 percent. That’s a big hit across the college.”

The Master’s in Finance, she notes, “is down by 50% compared to what they brought in last year.” The Master’s in Technology Management “is probably down by like 30% or so, and it’s because that program historically has really brought in a lot of students from India.” While applications for many of the on-campus programs trended upward during the admissions cycle, Brown says, the current political environment in the U.S. led to many admits facing visa appointment delays and visa denials.

The Master’s in Accountancy held steady in enrollments due to the program’s early June start and the growing diversity of countries from which students hail from, Brown says. However, programs in Business Analytics, Finance, and Technology Management were the most affected due to high rates of visa delays and denials, particularly in China and India.

The Master’s in Business Analytics has also slowed. “Last year we had 120 students; now we have 96. So not that big of a percentage drop, but it was a program that started in 2021 and had been seeing steady growth. We were on a trajectory to hit 150, got to 120, now down to 96.”

ONLINE PROGRAMS PICK UP THE SLACK

If on-campus programs are struggling, Gies’ online portfolio is doing the opposite.

“Our online programs are at scale that are currently about 75 to 80% domestic students,” Brown says. “Most of them are working professionals, but we do see students who are just finishing up undergrad that want to do a one-year master’s.”

This domestic-heavy mix has helped balance the downturn in international enrollment. “Even though we took a loss on residential tuition revenue, online was up,” she says. “When you netted it, we only have a loss of about $600,000 because online was up while residential was down. Online versus residential education tend to move opposite to each other when you think about enrollment and tuition revenue — it’s contrarian.”

For Brown, that makes online education a strategic safeguard. “If you’re a business school and you have not diversified your portfolio where there’s at least some online options, then in this current environment I would say you’re very late to the game,” she says.

NEW DEGREES WITH AI AT THE CORE

With $1.5 million in campus funding, Brown and her team are now preparing to launch two new online degrees — the first being an online Master’s in Business Analytics infused with artificial intelligence from the start.

“A neat thing that we are working on right now is launching an online version of our Master’s in Business Analytics and incorporating AI into that degree from the get-go so that when that degree launches it will be an MS in Business Analytics plus AI,” Brown says. “We are actually going to dub it not the iMSBA but the MSBAi — placing the ‘I’ at the end.”

“We’ve gotten really good projections for that program from Coursera,” she adds. “Anything touching AI is seeing huge demand.”

A soft launch is planned for Fall 2026, when students can start coursework as non-degree learners and stack those credits into the full degree in Spring 2027.

For the second new degree, Brown says discussions are ongoing. “We’ve been talking with our finance department on launching an online master’s in finance or financial management,” she says. “Brooke (Elliott) and I also started talking about looking at our master’s in technology management as maybe the second degree we launch, because we know that degree product is very unique globally and in the American marketplace.”

CROSS-CAMPUS COLLABORATION

The other growth opportunity Brown sees lies in collaboration across the Illinois campus.

“The second big opportunity that we’re seeing right now is partnering with other units on campus,” she says. “We will be launching the first MD/MBA program where the MD is on campus but the MBA is online. The proposal for that is going to be entering into the campus approval process this fall.”

The goal is to make a joint degree feasible for students at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. “Right now it’s like, okay, you got to do four years of medical school and then 72 credit hours of an MBA — it’s like a six-year degree journey,” Brown explains. “We’ve worked on how we can do a joint degree where the MBA portion is only an extra year.”

Other partnerships are advancing too. “We launched a brand-new specialization with our College of Agricultural and Consumer Economic Sciences — a three-pack of courses on agribusiness and food sustainability,” Brown says. “We’re also in discussions with our labor and employment relations college to share some of their work in human resources. Because of many of these courses we can build on our own, it’s better to partner.”

THE NEXT FRONTIER: SUPPLY CHAIN & HEALTHCARE

Brown says Gies continues to strengthen its flagship online MBA through new concentrations and specializations.

“We hear a lot from students about adding concentrations that really tie into their career fields,” she says. “The next two concentrations that I think we need to really think about potentially launching as a part of the MBA are supply chain and healthcare administration.”

“Supply chain comes up quite a bit,” she continues. “We do have supply-chain coursework residentially, but we do need to build a little bit more faculty bandwidth to be able to build those classes and put them online.”

On the healthcare side, “we recently launched a new specialization in healthcare innovation design and entrepreneurship, also in partnership with the College of Applied Health Sciences,” Brown says. “The feedback that I’ve heard from learners in the healthcare administration side of that industry is that that specialization really doesn’t help them. Healthcare administration is a second concentration that we hear a lot from students.”

BUILDING FLEXIBILITY INTO THE MBA

Another priority for Brown is making the MBA more flexible through recognition of prior learning.

“One thing that I said that we do need to look at is how we can provide not credit for prior learning, but benefit for prior learning,” she says. “Meaning if you’ve already earned a project-management certificate, we won’t totally waive a course for you, but you don’t need to do the project-management course again.

“Pick another elective. You still have to do the 72 credit hours, but again, how can we not make it so that you have to be chomping through Coursera that you’re already very familiar with?”

DON’T MISS ILLINOIS GIES DEAN BROOKE ELLIOTT ON ACCOUNTING’S FUTURE, ENROLLMENT CHALLENGES & INNOVATION AT SCALE

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.