iMBA At The University Of Illinois

“We want to be the world’s MBA program,” declares Jeffrey Brown, dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois.

It’s a bold statement, for sure, but with its iMBA online option priced at just $22,000, Brown clearly is poised to be the big disruptive player in the business school market.

“We have a better chance than anybody to be able to provide an outstanding education to people all around the globe who do not have the financial capacity to pay six figures for an MBA program,” he says. “I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of really smart, hard-working people in this world who come from families or countries that could never dream of paying six figures for a degree. At $22,000, we make this possible.”

What’s especially surprising is how much value Gies is delivering in a program with such a low price tag. Given the business school’s top 50 status, applicants will be hard pressed to find a better deal in an online option than this iMBA. Even at the incredibly low price, Gies boasts live virtual classes, projects with companies, and global immersions, typically features found in much more expensive online programs.

Interviews with Gies MBA candidates find an extremely satisfied group of online students. Recent surveys, in fact, show that 94% are either “completely” or “very” likely to recommend the program to a friend or colleague. “These are some of the highest student satisfaction numbers I have ever seen in a program,” says Brown.

Because the program is so affordable and can draw on a loyal University of Illinois alumni base, Gies iMBA has been able to attract a student population that looks more like an Executive MBA program than an online offering. Average work experience for…

“We want to be the world’s MBA program,” declares Jeffrey Brown, dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois.

It’s a bold statement, for sure, but with its iMBA online option priced at just $22,000, Brown clearly is poised to be the big disruptive player in the business school market.

“We have a better chance than anybody to be able to provide an outstanding education to people all around the globe who do not have the financial capacity to pay six figures for an MBA program,” he says. “I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of really smart, hard-working people in this world who come from families or countries that could never dream of paying six figures for a degree. At $22,000, we make this possible.”

What’s especially surprising is how much value Gies is delivering in a program with such a low price tag. Given the business school’s top 50 status, applicants will be hard pressed to find a better deal in an online option than this iMBA. Even at the incredibly low price, Gies boasts live virtual classes, projects with companies, and global immersions, typically features found in much more expensive online programs.

Interviews with Gies MBA candidates find an extremely satisfied group of online students. Recent surveys, in fact, show that 94% are either “completely” or “very” likely to recommend the program to a friend or colleague. “These are some of the highest student satisfaction numbers I have ever seen in a program,” says Brown.

Because the program is so affordable and can draw on a loyal University of Illinois alumni base, Gies iMBA has been able to attract a student population that looks more like an Executive MBA program than an online offering. Average work experience for iMBA students is 11 and one-half years. The program currently boasts students from 67 of the Fortune 100 companies, including representation from firms like Apple, FedEx, Google, Lockheed-Martin and Verizon.

“While the students are predominantly domestic, this program is global with people from every continent,” says Brown. “We’ve had some truly amazing people in there, from the commander of the Pacific Fleet who was in our first cohort to doctors, law partners, and executives in places like Microsoft. They love our program and rate it highly.”

In fact, of the current 2,600 enrolled students, roughly 21% are international from 91 countries, including India, Canada, China, Nigeria and Mexico. Some 48 states are represented in the program. One big surprise for an online MBA, which more typically gets students within a 150-mile radius of campus, is that just one in four of the students are from Illinois.

The program was launched in 2015 as the first massive open online course-based MBA degree in partnership with Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based online learning company. From the start, Gies touted the offering as the first ‘stackable’ MBA, meaning that a student can enter the program at any time and eventually build it into an MBA if he/she wants, stop at just a certificate, or just leave it at one course. It’s a low barrier of entry for those who might otherwise not pursue an MBA, but could benefit from the coursework.

Students who take two courses at a time can earn the MBA, which requires the completion of 18 courses or 72 credits, in two years. Students, however, would have as long as five years to gain the degree if they want to stretch out their coursework. The inaugural iMBA class of 76 students graduated in May of 2018 in a convocation ceremony at the school’s Champaign campus.

The program’s potential was clear from the start. Brown expected an initial incoming class of 50 students but got 112 after admitting 115. Since then, Gies iMBA has exploded, a trend likely to continue because Gies has decided not to require either a GMAT or GRE for admission. In 2016, the school enrolled 269 students in its iMBA program. In 2017, the number jumped to 563, and in 2018, it breeched more than 1,000 with 1,012. Applications have nearly tripled since 2016, projected to reach 3,200 in 2019 from 1,100 just three years ago.

That growth has led Dean Brown to shift the school’s strategy to focus on its iMBA and away from the school’s residential full-time MBA and its part-time MBA programs that are being phased out.

A typical iMBA course is eight weeks long with one live class a week that is videotaped and archived so students can also tune in and watch the discussion later. The technology allows for a surprising high degree of interaction.

“The faculty member sees a lot of the faces on the screen,” says Brown. “If somebody asks a question, you zoom in on them and it’s like everyone is in the front row. Every student has a front row seat and it feels that way to the faculty member, too. The technology allows sidebar conversations, and if there is a particularly interesting conversation developing, a faculty member can pull it out and bring it in to the center of the class. The faculty believe they have become better teachers in their face-to-face classes because of their online teaching experience.”

After a successful pilot in Brazil last year, Gies added a global immersion option, 10-day action learning experience done in student teams of four to five.  This year the global immersion is being offered in Germany. The other major new development in the program is the introduction of immersion projects that take place physically inside companies and other host organizations. This adds another way students can customize the iMBA to their individual preferences and needs. Gies does charge extra for participation in these projects.)

The school also plans to offer this year a series of regional and local micro-immersion options for students in various regional locations with the U.S. that give students an opportunity to learn from and real-world experiences across different industries and functions. These will be embedded inside the program’s two–week capstone projects, culminating in a three-day micro-immersion with the partner companies and extending networking opportunities with Illinois alumni.

“The biggest positive surprise out of this whole enterprise has been the extent to which students feel that they have a connected network,” adds Brown. “When we have our annual iConverge (a Thursday evening and all-day Friday face-to-face gathering) where people voluntarily come to campus, people who have never met in person see each other and they give each other big hugs and start asking about each other’s families. It’s like they are best buddies from school.”

Ultimately, the school’s goal is to make a quality MBA available to the masses at a very affordable price. “We are democratizing education,” says Brown, “expanding access to business education with a model that reduces barriers all over the place. It reduces financial barriers and geographic barriers. We’re making it possible for people in full-time jobs who are raising kids to come back to school. I want the iMBA to be the world’s MBA program. The only condition I have on that is to maintain quality.”