COVID-19 Update: What 2021 Looks Like So Far At The Leading MBA Programs

Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA students are back on campus, but with heavy restrictions and frequent testing. Stanford photo

The latest EFMD report, The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Business Schools, analyzes the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on business schools’ internal and external environments. Published in collaboration with survey software Le Sphinx, the report sheds light on how business schools are responding to the crisis and how they see the future.

The report finds that pandemic has shaken the foundations of business schools’ operations and teaching, but even more importantly, that schools have re-evaluated the core of their missions, re-established relations with global and local environments, realigned their approach to key stakeholders, and redefined their business models. The survey collected responses from over 100 business schools between October-November 2020 and analysed responses according to the Business Schools Impact System model.

Four in five business schools (79%) are confident that they have managed to sustain or increase their impact during the pandemic. The only significant difference between schools is based on their location: in Europe, fewer schools believe that their impact has increased (17% instead of 30%, on average).

School	Covid Update Page	Latest Updates
Stanford GSB	https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/covid-19-information	Students are on campus, course instruction is a hybrid of online and in-person
Harvard Business School	https://www.hbs.edu/keephbshealthy/Pages/default.aspx	Classes remain hybrid; student gatherings outdoors limited to 25, indoors to 10
Penn Wharton	https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/spring-2021/	Alert Level 2: Heightened Awareness. At this level, Wharton “is able to conduct its various hybrid scenarios”
Chicago Booth	https://www.chicagobooth.edu/coronavirus	In-class student participation on all three Illinois campuses limited to “local” residents
MIT Sloan	https://mitsloan.mit.edu/returntocampus/covid-19-testing-mit-sloan	All students registered for in-person classes are required to test twice a week, 3-4 days apart
Northwestern Kellogg	https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/about/coronavirus.aspx	Classes to be hybrid; spring class-bidding postponed to February 19
Columbia Business School	https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/mba-students/returning-to-campus	CBS continues its “HyFlex” model of teaching, in which students are mixed between in-person and remote instruction
UC-Berkeley Haas	https://coronavirus.berkeley.edu	Self-sequester for residential students lifted
Dartmouth Tuck	https://covid.dartmouth.edu/covid19-dashboard	78,000 students have been tested since July 1, with 103 cases found; hybrid teaching will continue through the spring 2021 term. Dartmouth College requires those accessing campus facilities to be tested for Covid twice weekly.
Yale SOM	https://som.yale.edu/COVID	Hybrid: Half of students will attend a given class session in person while the other half participates remotely
Virginia Darden	https://www.darden.virginia.edu/about/return-to-grounds/updates	As of Feb. 12, UVA leadership is keeping the restriction on meetings and gatherings at six people, but may move to even more limited operations if there is a continued increase in cases
Cornell Johnson	https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/new-students/two-year-mba/covid-19-frequently-asked-questions/	Ithaca campus “reactivation” underway
Michigan Ross	https://michiganross.umich.edu/covid-19-info	Ross is continuing to offer a mix of remote, hybrid, and a few fully in-person classes to undergraduate and graduate students
Duke Fuqua	https://coronavirus.duke.edu/?_ga=2.35544361.985064538.1613507788-1214926969.1613507788	Hybrid; 20 positive cases found Feb. 8-14 through about 12,000 tests of students, faculty and staff across Duke University
NYU Stern	https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/stern-returns/information-for-students	Hybrid
UCLA Anderson	https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/news-and-events/covid-19-faq#x273984	Remote
CMU Tepper	https://www.cmu.edu/coronavirus/	Hybrid
USC Marshall	https://www.marshall.usc.edu/coronavirus	Remote
UNC Kenan-Flagler	https://carolinatogether.unc.edu/dashboard/	Remote
Texas-Austin McCombs	https://protect.utexas.edu/campus-operations/#campus-open-status	Hybrid: Campus is at Level 3: Ultra-low density, meaning buildings are open but a large number of classes are being conducted remotely
Washington Foster	https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/	Phase 2: Most classes are remote
Emory Goizueta	https://goizueta.emory.edu/forward	Hybrid, but all in-person classes also will be available online to accommodate vulnerable populations
Indiana Kelley	https://www.iu.edu/covid/prevention/index.html	Hybrid
Georgetown McDonough	https://msb.georgetown.edu/corona-info/	Most classes are remote, but some graduate courses may have in-person components
Georgia Tech Scheller	https://health.gatech.edu/coronavirus/students	Hybrid
London Business School	https://www.london.edu/about/contact/safe-and-open	Under national lockdown; learning is all remote
HEC Paris	https://www.hec.edu/en/news-room/coronavirus-information	Remote
INSEAD	https://www.insead.edu/covid-19-updates/safety-measures-on-campus	Classrooms open with extensive safety measures
IESE	https://www.iese.edu/ready-safe-go/safe/	MBA classrooms have reopened