The Future of the MBA is Online, Says New Survey
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In our February 2024 report titled “MBA Applicants Celebrate: Drop in Applications Reduces Competition,” we cited new data showing that online and hybrid online MBA programs around the world continued to gain enrollments during 2023. That data provided by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) stood in sharp contrast with declines among the traditional on-campus programs. And now, a more recent survey further emphasizes this trend.
In May 2024, the British higher education consulting firm CarringtonCrisp announced results from the 15th annual edition of the worldwide poll they call Tomorrow’s MBA. This survey shows that out of thousands of prospective MBA program applicants, only as few as one-fifth want to study entirely on campus.
About 42 percent prefer a combination of online and campus classes, and 24 percent prefer blended-hybrid online programs that enable them to switch between in-person and online classes. However, only a mere 22 percent prefer entirely in-person instruction.
These stunning results portray a dramatic reversal from only 12 months before, when MBA applicants seemed to indicate they wanted more in-person instruction after all the isolation during the pandemic. For example, in last year’s 2023 edition of the CarringtonCrisp MBA survey, 47 percent of the respondents said they wanted to study full-time on campus. Moreover, less than a third (29 percent) said they preferred entirely online or blended online courses. That amounted to almost a 25 percent plunge from the 38 percent of respondents who preferred online instruction in 2022.
EFMD’s Involvement Adds Credibility
This sudden reversal—where MBAs now express a solid preference for online education—might seem more credible once one better understands this survey’s history and methodology.
Since the 2009 global financial crisis, over 10,000 prospective MBA students in more than 90 nations have answered the poll’s questions. For the 2024 annual edition, CarringtonCrisp polled 2,263 MBA applicants online from 32 countries. More than 75 percent of the 2024 respondents fell within the most common age range for applicants to MBA programs—26 to 40 years—and the sample was equally balanced between men and women.
In compiling the results, CarringtonCrisp also received support from EFMD, the Brussels-based European Foundation for Management Development. Because we predominantly cover business schools within the United States and Canada here on BSchools, many of our readers might not be familiar with this organization.
EFMD launched during the early 1970s as a European counterpart to the business school accrediting board now known as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which after accrediting business schools within the United States for 52 years started to accredit schools outside the country in 1968. With 389 member business schools across the European Union, EFMD currently operates the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), which is one of the main accreditation boards for business schools and management degree programs within higher education institutions in Europe.
Only 31 American universities currently maintain EFMD memberships, including elite, top-ranked business schools at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and Northwestern University. EFMD also operates several ongoing programs for faculty and administrators that enhance the educational quality at colleges and universities that award management and business administration degrees.
MBAs Prioritize AI and Technology Topics
The CarringtonCrisp report continues a trend started with the 2023 survey, where 31 percent of MBA applicants chose artificial intelligence as their favorite MBA course content—even though during polling early in 2023, such a field of concentration within business schools didn’t yet exist. Then, in the 2024 edition, that AI preference shot up above half the sample to 53 percent—a whopping 71 percent increase that ranked AI above eight other technology topics.
The AI runners-up included technology management at 48 percent, data analytics and decision-making at 46 percent, and digital transformation at 44 percent. In fact, between 48 and 41 percent of the sample selected every one of the nine non-AI technology topics as their favorite course content.
Coverage of MBA Program Competitors
What’s particularly interesting about this survey is that to our knowledge here at BSchools, this is the only recent poll of prospective MBA students to ask respondents if they’d ever considered any of the newer “mini-MBA” programs, along with other typical alternatives that compete with MBA degrees.
For example, about 64 percent had considered professional degrees like law school as MBA alternatives, 61 percent had considered other master’s degrees, and 57 percent had considered continuing professional development training within their industry. Moreover, short courses were also considered by 39 percent of the sample—even if those options didn’t offer academic credit towards degrees.
More than 70 percent had also heard of each one of eight “mini-MBA” programs asked about by CarringtonCrisp, including some training programs offered by private companies instead of business schools. For example, one such mini-MBA program offered by PwC as part of its PwC Academy had also garnered the poll’s highest recognition score.
However, it’s important to note that although these programs might carry “mini-MBA” branding, with the possible exception of one intensive program at Harvard University, they are generally considered pre-MBA training. In other words, they are not considered to be a version of an MBA degree in any way.
Moreover, some of these programs are not even offered to the general public. These include a mini-MBA boot camp to which McKinsey & Company reportedly sends many non-MBA employees; in less than four weeks McKinsey teaches them business concepts and tools the firm considers most important.
Nevertheless, in view of such related learning alternatives, Andrew Crisp said in a statement released with the poll results that the MBA degree has arrived at a critical juncture:
The MBA remains a popular degree, but it’s not the same MBA as 20 years ago. Several trends are converging which mean that many business schools will need to review their MBA offers to continue to attract strong cohorts.
We are in a buyer’s market in which students are spoilt for choice when it comes to developing professional skills. They want learning that can be tailored to their needs and can be studied how they want. Technology is central to any learning.
Those business schools that can provide MBA programs that meet these needs will be successful. Those that don’t adapt will find it hard going.
The Tomorrow’s Masters Survey
Along with the 2024 Tomorrow’s MBA survey, CarringtonCrisp additionally released the 2024 edition of a companion survey called Tomorrow’s Masters. Also produced in association with EFMD, this poll focuses on the opinions of 1,596 applicants to pre-experience, specialized business master’s degree programs. Some of the results in this survey of potential master’s students from 28 nations might seem surprising—such as a curious disconnect in the popularity of artificial intelligence between the latest MBA and Masters polls.
The Masters survey distinguishes between the most important content “topics” covered within courses, as opposed to the most important course “subjects.” The sample ranked Diversity and Equality as the most important topic, for which almost half the sample (46 percent) voted. Diversity and Equality ranked ahead of Responsible Management (40 percent), Ethical Leadership (33 percent) and Global Challenges like climate change, pollution, and poverty (31 percent).
But when asked which course subjects are most important, the results aligned with those presented by the 2024 edition of the Graduate Management Admission Council’s Prospective Students Survey. Investment and Banking topped the Tomorrow’s Masters poll with 35 percent of the vote, matching GMAC’s data showing that prospective students select specialized master’s degrees in finance over any others.
The runner-up subjects included two ties. Business Forecasting and Modeling tied with Market Research, both with 29 percent. Next, Business and Information Technology tied with Digital Marketing, both with 26 percent. Those runner-ups placed well ahead of the usual required business core subjects which all clustered between 22 and 19 percent: Finance, Marketing, Economics, Management, and Entrepreneurship.
Strangely enough, Artificial Intelligence and Business finished in sixth place among the subjects with only 25 percent. That low ranking for this AI subject contrasts with the way that AI topped the MBA polling with more than double that proportion, at 53 percent as we mentioned above.
But when the poll asked the potential students about whether they plan to use artificial intelligence during their studies, the rankings were much higher and tightly clustered at around 60 percent of the sample. For example, 62 percent believe that AI platforms make assessments such as hourly and final examinations redundant, and 61 percent say that universities should not consider the student use of AI platforms as cheating. Plus, 59 percent expect they’ll use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot during their programs to complete their assignments, problem sets, and projects.
That 59 percent AI usage rate might seem substantial. However, that’s not even remotely close to the AI usage rates reported by students at Harvard University, along with the students across 16 nations surveyed by the high-profile universities of the Digital Education Council.
