The economic uncertainty of recent years appears to have dragged on long enough to defy standard trends for graduate-level business programs.
The usual pattern has seen economic slowdowns prompt increases in enrollments for graduate programs.
Students who have recently gotten undergraduate degrees often opt for graduate work when jobs are scarce. Working professionals and some who get furloughs also tend to gravitate to graduate programs as a way to boost their earning potential.
“But during the past recession, it was so deep, so severe—you threw that rule out the window,” said Harry Schuler, executive director of the MBA program at Webster University in Irvine.
This time around, with a tepid recovery keeping nerves on edge about a double dip, there’s been an upswing in enrollments for MBA program.
The trend is reflected in the field of MBA programs serving Orange County, a roster that includes more than 40 colleges and universities offering programs based here and in nearby areas.
The schools combined for a 1.5% increase in enrollment in the 12 months through June, discounting one school that’s facing questions on its accreditation. The number of students fell 6.7% the year prior.
Leading Edge
Local schools appear to be on the leading edge in running against traditional patterns. National and international data suggest a decline in enrollments that began in 2008 continues in most places.
“There are several ways the economy is impacting this,” said Bob Sowell, vice president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “One is that students who are in jobs— given the job situation— are more reluctant to take a chance to leave that job to go into a full-time MBA program.”
Employers also might be proceeding with caution.
“Perhaps the employer is not contributing to the cost of education as they have been in the past,” Sowell said.
Enrollments in specialty programs are running counter to the national trend of declines in enrollments for standard MBA studies, according to administrators.
An application trend survey done by the Graduate Management Admission Council showed an overall decline in applications for MBA program but a big jump for specialized degrees this year.
The survey included 649 programs in 331 business schools worldwide.
More than 80% of the master of finance programs reported an increase in applications, leading the trend. Nearly 70% of master in management programs showed growth in the number of applications.
“There is tremendous interest in specialized master’s programs,” said Anne Warde, spokeswoman for the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.
The school is “pursuing them not as an alternative to an MBA, but as a way provide specialized education in certain professions,” she said.
New at UCI
UCI has two specialized master’s programs in their final approval stages: a master’s in science and engineering management and a master’s in science and biotech management.
It is also looking to launch a master’s program in accounting in the next few years.
Some for-profit campuses are among the trend.
DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management, which has seen applications increase “in the project management and sustainability management areas,” according to regional spokesman Dan Dement.
“Employers wanting to have more specialized candidates” and having to select from a large pool of applicants account for the heightened interest in more specific programs, Dement said.
The School of Business at California Southern University in Irvine is making similar efforts, according to John Minchin, dean of the School of Business.
“We’re getting ready to put in an MBA specialization in healthcare management,” Minchin said.
Two-Year Programs Down
The Graduate Management Admission Council research showed that 67% of respondents reported declines in their mainstay two-year, full-time MBA programs this year. That’s up from 49% that reported declines a year earlier.
Among the one-year, full-time MBA programs surveyed, 57% reported a decrease in applications, compared with 43% a year earlier.
“I would not draw that conclusion that enrollment numbers dropping is a sign of an economic turnaround,” the Council of Graduate Schools’ Sowell said. “We don’t have any hard evidence, and we can only speculate. I’m really concerned that as long as we still have this economy and the job situation as they are now, it’s going to be a slow process to make a turnaround.”
