Deans Who Downsized Their Own MBAs Now Want The Industry To Rank Them Differently

Arizona Eller Dean Karthik Kannan: “People are asking – what’s the value of an MBA if I can grow in my career through part-time or online programs without leaving the workforce for two years?”

Two business schools cut their MBAs from two years to one. Now their deans are asking the industry to build them a ranking that judges the results on their own terms.

In a July 27 op-ed for AACSB Insights, Brian Cameron and Corey Phelps of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, alongside Pamela Jorden and Karthik Kannan of the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, argue that one-year MBAs have become a distinct product category that existing rankings methodologies weren’t built to measure. Two-year MBAs are typically aimed at students with significant experience who want to reinvent themselves, while one-year programs are designed for those who want to accelerate their early-career success, the authors write.

Both Smeal (see P&Q’s story here) and Eller (see here) downsized their own MBA programs from two years to one in recent years.

SMEAL’S SHIFT TO ONE YEAR

Penn State’s Smeal College announced in August 2022 that it would close its two-year residential MBA, with the fall 2022 cohort as its last, P&Q reported at the time. The move followed a steep enrollment slide – Smeal’s full-time program had admitted 98 students in 2021 but drew just 55 for the 2023 cohort, with yield falling from 67.1% in 2019 to 56.1% in 2021. Then-dean Charles Whiteman attributed the closure to declining interest in a full-time, two-year commitment as more flexible options proliferated nationally, and the school added a STEM designation as it relaunched as a one-year program in fall 2023. 

Cameron, one of the AACSB op-ed’s co-authors and Smeal’s associate dean of professional graduate programs and executive education, later described the reasoning behind that shift directly to P&Q for a May 2026 feature on Smeal’s revamped program lineup. 

“MBAs want to earn their degree in a more compressed timeframe than they traditionally have wanted to,” he said. “They want to finish their degree in a year.” Phelps, the op-ed’s other Smeal-affiliated co-author, took over as dean in 2024, inheriting the one-year program Whiteman had put in place.

ELLER FOLLOWED 2 YEARS LATER

The University of Arizona’s Eller College made a similar move. P&Q reported in December 2024 that Eller would retire its 21-month MBA in favor of a one-year format beginning in 2025. Kannan, Eller’s dean and an AACSB op-ed co-author, called the change “an exciting evolution” at the time, saying the accelerated program would let graduates rejoin the school’s global alumni network “that much sooner.”

Kannan expanded on the decision in P&Q‘s March 2026 feature on the top one-year MBA programs, portraying it as a response to shifting demand. “What became evident was the opportunity cost,” he said. “People are asking – what’s the value of an MBA if I can grow in my career through part-time or online programs without leaving the workforce for two years?” He also predicted the trend would spread beyond Eller: “I think the majority of schools beyond the very top tier will face enormous pressure to rethink the two-year MBA. The question is whether you wait for the market to force the change – or whether you move first.”

Jorden, Eller’s assistant dean of graduate programs and the op-ed’s fourth co-author, told P&Q in June 2025 that the school’s new one-year MBA – part of a broader expansion that included three other new programs – was designed “to meet the needs of working professionals, and to minimize time away from workforce while offering programs that meet the needs of the ever-evolving business market.”

THE CASE FOR NEW METRICS

The authors argue that one-year programs differ from two-year programs in inputs, process, and outputs, and that existing rankings criteria – built around internships and three-month placement windows – penalize accelerated formats for not resembling degrees they were never meant to be. Their proposed framework centers on three types of metrics: ROI and career advancement, weighing tuition and forgone earnings against post-degree salary gains adjusted for cost of living; career velocity, tracking promotions three to four years out; and employer satisfaction, drawn from audited surveys and hiring data.

Eller’s new one-year MBA already appears on P&Q‘s March 2026 list of top one-year MBA programs, alongside Kellogg – the format’s original pioneer – and Emory’s Goizueta, which has run a one-year MBA for more than three decades. Smeal’s one-year program did not make that list. A new ranking of one-year programs could also presumably include major global programs such as those at Oxford Saïd Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School, and INSEAD (the latter of which is a 10-month program).

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