Download the 2010 OC MBA SCHOOLS COS Directory (pdf)
Enrollment in graduate-level business programs in Orange County dipped 6.7% from a year ago to 6,222 students, according to this week’s Business Journal directory.
TUI University in Cypress, an online program that’s by far the largest locally in terms of number of students, accounted for the majority of the overall decline in enrollments.
The decline is no surprise in any case. Experts say prospective master’s of business administration students are delaying enrollment decisions to focus on work or find a job as the downturn lingers. That’s likely made it tough on a number of programs, including TUI, which offers coursework online and saw its enrollment drop nearly 8%, shedding 271 students.
TUI remains the largest player in the local field, with 3,141 students, so its percentage dip had an outsized effect on overall numbers. The school’s numbers account for nearly 60% of the total decline among OC programs.
The rest of the business schools with local programs posted a mixed bag of results.
The University of California, Irvine, saw enrollment at its Paul Merage School of Business drop 2.8% to 789 students. Chapman University in Orange registered a drop of 7.1% to 262 MBA students.
California State University, Fullerton ran counter to the trend and saw MBA enrollment increase from a year earlier. The public university’s MBA enrollment jumped 10.2% to 562 students.
UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Chapman educate about a quarter of all graduate business students in OC, with a combined enrollment of 1,613.
Gary Lindblad, assistant dean of the full-time MBA program at UCI, said the economy has held down the number of enrollments since many candidates don’t want to graduate in a climate with high unemployment and a weak job market.
“(Potential Students) have a more complicated decision to make,” Lindblad said. “Do they go now or do they wait until they start to see an economic upturn?”
The Business Journal directory includes listings for schools offering MBA programs throughout Southern California.
Many of the schools, but not all, have local campuses. Some of the schools, including University of Southern California and California State Polytechnic Univer-sity, Pomona, draw a lot of students from OC.
Debra Gonda, associate director of graduate programs at Chapman’s Argyros School of Business and Economics, said the school’s enrollment fell in part because employees often are working longer hours than they were before the recession, preventing them from furthering their education. Others don’t want to jeopardize their current employment with time off or shortened days to attend classes, she added.
Some employers also stopped offering tuition stipends or reimbursements, she said, so some potential applicants can’t afford the cost.
“As the recession drags on we’re all seeing a slowing down in applications, especially (from) working students,” Gonda said. “In general MBA demand is down.”
That’s in stark contrast to a year ago, when Chapman’s enrollment increased 11.5% during the heart of the recession. Experts contend that higher education enrollment increases during recessions, but empirical evidence on prolonged downturns is relatively unknown.
Cal State Fullerton’s success in the face of the general trend led to an increase in enrollment at its Mihaylo College of Business and Economics.
Van Muse, director of MBA programs at Cal State Fullerton, said he’s seeing students apply to more schools now than they did before and they’re taking much longer to decide on where to attend and when.
“The fact that we are up in enrollment is a good sign for our program in the midst of a very competitive market in Southern California,” Muse said.
The tough economy is taking an especially hard toll on for-profit programs, a reversal from the trend a year ago when the recession proved a boon for TUI and others. TUI enrollment was up 34% a year ago, which helped OC business programs boost enrollment 12% in the Business Journal’s directory.
The school competes with other colleges that offer MBA courses online, including Illinois-based DeVry University, which has a campus in Irvine, and University of Phoenix, which has campuses in Costa Mesa and Laguna Hills. DeVry saw its OC enrollment hold steady, with 62 students in its MBA program. The Univer- sity of Phoenix joined TUI in posting a decline, registering a 31% decline to 225 students.
Meanwhile, the rising cost of tuition at some state schools also has affected how potential students evaluate their return on investment and ultimately their decision to go back to school.
“Those increases have definitely played a part,” UCI’s Lindblad said.
Tuition for UCI’s MBA program is some $30,000 for in-state students and $42,000 for out-of-state.
Prices also are a factor at Chapman, a private university. The school’s accelerated and evening MBA programs are about $62,000. The executive program is $80,000.
