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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
An Update on the High-Tech MBA
Reuben Kyle & Troy A. Festervand
To cite this article: Reuben Kyle & Troy A. Festervand (2005) An Update on the High-Tech MBA,
Journal of Education for Business, 80:4, 240-244, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.80.4.240-244
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.80.4.240-244
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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An Update on the High-Tech MBA
REUBEN KYLE
TROY A. FESTERVAND
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
J
ust 3 years ago, as the MBA degree
was going “high-tech” and for-profit,
the future of graduate business education
appeared to be unbounded. Indeed, the
hostile takeover of the MBA by for-profit, online institutions seemed virtually
imminent. Has this vision become reality?
What is the future of graduate business
study? Who will deliver the program, and
what will be the role of technology in the
graduate business curriculum? In this
article, we report on the current status of
the MBA with regard to these questions
and reflect on the MBA degree’s
prospects.
ABSTRACT. The popularity of the
master’s of business administration
(MBA) degree has resulted in booming enrollments in the United States
and around the world. In the late
1990s, the MBA degree seemed to be
in danger of being taken over by
trends in high technology. First, forprofit providers gained students and
credibility to such an extent that
respected traditional not-for-profit
universities were tempted to create
new for-profit subsidiaries. Second,
online delivery became the “medium
of the future.” Third, the dot-com
explosion made technology-related
programs attractive. In this article, the
authors evaluate the current status of
the MBA, update these three developments of the degree programs, and
reflect on the MBA degree’s prospects
for the future.
Incentives for Pursuing Graduate
Business Education
It is not surprising that the economic
incentives for pursuing postgraduate
education, especially the MBA, remain
powerful. The U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics (2003b) reported that full-time
workers aged 25 and older with a master’s degree earn about 19% more than
those with an undergraduate degree and
90% more than those with a high school
diploma. As of the second quarter of
2003, the premium for women with a
bachelor’s degree or higher, as compared with those with a high school
degree, was 77%; the corresponding figure for men was nearly 83% (U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003a).
240
Journal of Education for Business
The Graduate Management Admissions Council’s (2003) Global MBA
Survey reported that students in 2003
were anticipating a 56% increase in
salary on completion of their degrees.
The 4,123 students from 96 schools surveyed by the GMAC reported that their
median base salary earned before starting their MBA studies was $50,000 and
that their median expected salary on
graduation was $75,000. Not surprisingly, enrollment in graduate business
education programs has responded to
these anticipated earnings premiums.
Over the past 3 decades, graduate
degrees awarded in business have
increased steadily from about 11% of
total graduate degrees awarded in
1970–1971 to almost 25% in
2000–2001. Likewise, the total number
of master’s degrees awarded to business
majors has grown, with some increases
and decreases, from about 26,000 in
1970–1971 to more than 116,000 in
2000–2001 (U.S. Department of Education, 2003a). Furthermore, enrollment in
graduate business programs can be
expected to increase, at least in the short
term, because the number of Graduate
Management Admissions Tests (GMAT)
taken worldwide exploded from about
130,000 in 2000 to more than 161,000 in
2001–2002 (Graduate Management
Admissions Council, 2003).
Much of this international increase is
occurring throughout the Asia-Pacific
region. According to an Indian School of
Business analysis, there were 170,000
applications and 11,000 MBA degrees
awarded in 74 prominent Asia-Pacific
business schools in 2002, and this
demand is expected to continue (Tan,
2003). The surge in demand for the
MBA in this region (e.g., China,
Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand) is
being led by managers whose companies
have weathered the global economic
slowdown and are in a growth cycle
(Tan). Perhaps these levels of demand,
both current and projected, explain why
so many U.S. business schools have
either gone offshore by partnering with
one or more foreign universities or have
developed online MBA programs.
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For-Profit Programs
During the 1990s, virtually any
online enterprise looked like a sure winner. However, with the return to economic reality and the passage of dotcom euphoria, many online ventures
disappeared. Such was not the case with
for-profit universities. Not only have
online enrollments continued to grow,
but, through 2003, for-profit higher education enterprises outperformed the
stock market by a wide margin. The
Apollo Group’s University of Phoenix
now has 124 locations in 26 states with
an enrollment of about 152,000 students
(Selingo, 2003). University of Phoenix
students may pursue an MBA, along
with a number of other degree programs, either online, at one of several
campuses around the country, or
through FlexNet®, a combination of the
two (University of Phoenix, 2004a).
Other major for-profit institutions are
Capella University, DeVry University,
Strayer University, and Sylvan Learning
Systems’ National Technological University, all of which offer graduate business degree programs. In fact, according
to Selingo (2003), there are about 750
for-profit degree-granting institutions
with more than 400,000 undergraduate
and graduate students.
Just before the dot-com bubble burst,
the appeal of for-profit operations
attracted some traditional, even distinguished, not-for-profit universities. For
example, New York University created
NYUonline, Inc. as a for-profit subsidiary in 1998. In 2000, Columbia
University teamed with the London
School of Economics and Business and
a number of other prestigious institutions to create a for-profit operation,
Fathom.com, to explore opportunities
for online education. Unlike the true
commercial education companies,
these ventures by traditional universities have not met with success. By
November 2001, the NYUonline venture was shut down, and its successful
courses were transferred to the University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (“N.Y.U. Shuts Down an
Internet Venture,” 2001). Likewise, in
January 2003, Columbia announced
that the Fathom experiment was being
closed down (Information Today, Inc.,
2003). Clearly, these for-profit MBA
“wannabes” found that the transition
from the traditional collegiate model to
business-managed institutions was not
easy or guaranteed. However, for-profit
higher education has proven to be a
very successful business enterprise for
some, and market analysts predict it to
be a high-growth industry for the foreseeable future.
Online Degree Programs
The time when students entered the
academy and sequestered themselves in
a remote rural location for 4 or more
years is long past. According to the
National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES; U.S. Department of Education,
2003b), only 27% of 13 million U.S.
undergraduate college students fit the
traditional age cohort and attend college
for 4 consecutive years.
In 1970, about one third of full-time
college students were employed. By the
mid-1990s, that percentage had
increased to nearly 50% (U.S. Department of Education, 2003b). Over 65%
of the high school graduating class of
2002 enrolled in college, and, of those,
90% became full-time students. Among
full-time students, nearly 43% were
employed or looking for work in October 2002, whereas almost 76% of parttime students were employed (U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003b).
In response to the changing workrelated circumstances of students, colleges and universities have offered
courses and entire degree programs in
formats that are much more flexible
than the traditional one-size-fits-all
model. The NCES (U.S. Department of
Education, 2003c) reported that, in
2000–2001, 56% of 2- and 4-year
degree-granting institutions offered
some distance-learning courses. A study
just released by the Sloan Consortium
(2003) reported that more than 1.6 million students took at least one online
course in the fall semester 2002, and
that by fall 2003 that number was projected to grow to 1.9 million, representing more than an 18% growth rate.
The 2003 MBAInfo database indicated
that 208 institutions worldwide offer
MBA programs online or through distance learning. As of October 2003,
USNews.com (2003) was listing 246
online graduate degree programs, up
from 48 in 2001. This Web site listed 41
graduate business programs accredited by
the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB) International. The AACSB Overview of U.S.
Business Schools reported that 8 of the
303 institutions that it surveyed had fulltime distance-learning MBA programs,
and 43, with 3.1% of total enrollment,
had part-time distance-learning programs
(AACSB International, 2002).
Virtual universities such as Capella
University (http://www.capellauniversity.
edu/), Western Governors University
(http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/index.html),
and the National Technological University (http://www.ntu.edu/)1 represent a
new type of university. Capella, like the
University of Phoenix, is a for-profit
institution, but it is entirely an online
operation. Western Governors University,
founded by the governors of a group of
western states, offers no courses of its
own but coordinates access to the courses
of more than 40 colleges, universities,
and corporate institutions. The university
presently offers associate’s and bachelor’s degrees and a master’s of arts in
learning and technology.
Students earn degrees and certificates
by demonstrating competence in specified areas of a program instead of earning
credits by taking and passing courses. To
prepare for the competency examination,
students may take courses at the participating institutions via distance learning,
either online or through correspondence.
The National Technological University
(NTU, 2004) also is a consortium of universities (27) that provide online courses
under the NTU name. Eighteen master’s
degree programs are offered, including
an MBA. Tuition varies by course and
institution but typically is $1,000 per
credit hour.
Still other graduate business opportunities exist in what might be considered
hybrid or niche markets. For example,
Duke University offers a 19-month global
executive MBA costing $107,000, in
which students spend some time in class
and some online (http://www.fuqua.
March/April 2005
241
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duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html). Currently, admission to this program does not
require the GMAT but is based on the
applicant’s work experience and previous
academic work for determination of student–program suitability. Likewise, the
College of Business at the University of
Tennessee–Knoxville (UTK) offers a
physician’s executive MBA program
online (http://www.pemba.utk.edu/). The
12-month $48,000 program, exclusively
for physicians, requires four 1-week, oncampus residence periods. The course-
(http://www.mb ainfo.com/), which provides details on 2,500 MBA programs
from 1,300 universities, business
schools, and management colleges in
126 countries, indicates that there are 85
programs at 65 institutions worldwide
with a focus on e-commerce, new technologies, technology management, and
information technology and communications management.
These numerous technology programs notwithstanding, the appeal of
information technology apparently has
Future MBA graduates will continue to be trained to
function internationally, but that training will become
more culturally specific.
work, for which no business prerequisite
or GMAT test is required, consists of 3
modules of multiple topics, to be completed primarily via the Internet.
Why have these programs succeeded?
In the case of UTK’s online physician’s
executive MBA program, one can surmise that (a) the offering may be filling
a void in a market that can afford the
lofty price of the degree, (b) the students
in the program do not have the time to
take a comparable set of courses in the
classroom, or (c) the students generally
are seeking the degree for reasons other
than employment or career advancement. Likewise, the image and prestige
associated with Duke’s national ranking
among top-10 MBA programs allows it
to command top dollar for its global
executive degree.
Technology-Oriented Degree
Programs
During the glory days of the dot-com
bubble, many new degree programs in
information technology and electronic
commerce were developed. The AACSB
International reported 66 member MBA
programs with e-commerce emphases in
existence (AACSB International, 2002).
A search on the MBAinfo.com database
242
Journal of Education for Business
begun to fade. For example, beginning
in 1997, ComputerWorld has been surveying 1,000 campus recruiters to produce its ranking of top U.S. university
techno-MBA programs (http://www.
computerworld.com). The magazine has
not published the survey since 2001.
What happened? Perhaps the skills
required to function effectively in the
global marketplace changed.
We can predict with a high degree of
certainty that tomorrow’s MBA graduates will find themselves operating in an
increasingly global environment that
employs increasing amounts of technology (Richards-Wilson, 2002). However,
although these skills are critical, success
in tomorrow’s global marketplace will
demand skills that transcend traditional
and homogeneous areas of expertise. For
example, future MBA graduates will
continue to be trained to function internationally, but that training will become
more culturally specific. Such culturespecific training is already available from
both academic institutions (e.g., the
French DESS degree/system, which
offers French MBA students seven nationspecific study programs) and commercial
providers (e.g., http://www.MiddleEast
Training.com). Increasing competition,
financial pressures, and myriad forms of
risk will only accelerate the demand for
such specificity.
The Future
The evidence suggests that the hightech MBA program is alive and well, surviving both boom and bust. Despite some
retrenchment, there is little question that
online delivery and technology-oriented
programs will continue to survive and
likely prosper. However, there are hurdles
that must be overcome.
The question facing many institutions
of higher learning—and schools of business in particular—is how to meet this
future. How important is the quality of
the education? Is mode of delivery,
along with the associated convenience
factor, critical? Is the value of an MBA
delivered largely or totally online by a
for-profit institution equal to or greater
than that of a traditional MBA?
Regarding the quality issue, how do
the major for-profit universities—the
University of Phoenix, Capella University, and Strayer University—measure
up? What is the relationship between
price and quality? How do the faculty
members compare with those at the traditional programs?
Many for-profit programs do not
require admissions tests. The University
of Phoenix (2004b), which is accredited
by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, charges $545 per credit hour and requires 3 years of work experience and an undergraduate grade point
average (GPA) of 2.5 for admission.
Some for-profit programs even advertise
that no GMAT is required. Capella University, which is accredited by the Higher
Learning Commission, charges $1,575
for a 3-hour online MBA course and
requires a 2.7 undergraduate GPA for
admission. Strayer University, which is
accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, charges
$324.50 per credit hour for each 4.5-credit-hour course in its 54-hour curriculum.
Admission to Strayer’s program is based
on acceptable performance in one of the
following three criteria: (a) GMAT score
(at least 450), (b) GRE score (at least
1,000), and (c) GPA (minimum 2.75).
With a little arithmetic, we can deduce
that all three institutions charge around
$1,460–$1,600 per course.2
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Still other online programs, such as
Capella University (2004a), give academic credit for nonacademic experiences. The contact hours may be substantially less than those of traditional
programs (e.g., the University of
Phoenix [2004a] requires students to
sign on at least five times per week and
post comments twice per week).
One means of quality assurance is
accreditation of institutions and programs by recognized accrediting organizations. The latest AACSB standards
for master’s level degree programs,
specifically Standards 18 and 19, indicate a responsibility by the institution
for assuring “the quality of learning . . .
regardless of where or how it takes
place” (AACSB International, 2004,
pp. 67–69). Standard 20 requires that
master’s programs “provide sufficient
time, content coverage, student-effort,
and student-faculty interaction to
assure that the learning goals are
accomplished” (AACSB International,
2004, p. 69). These standards, deliberately or otherwise, would affect the
ability of online graduate degree programs to become accredited by the
AACSB International.
Many of the for-profit institutions are
accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, member of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools.
Capella University (2004b) adds the following phrase to that information: “the
same agency that accredits Big Ten
schools in the Midwest.” Clearly, Capella
is eager to assure prospective students of
the quality of its product.
At the same time, none of these institutions are accredited by the AACSB
International, the most highly regarded
and sought-after form of business school
accreditation. A few AACSB-accredited
graduate programs do offer online
MBAs (e.g., Indiana University and the
University of Colorado–Denver). However, achieving AACSB accreditation for
many online programs is likely to be a
long-term challenge.
Still another quality-related issue
associated with the for-profit model
concerns faculty credentials. All business schools accredited by the AACSB
International require terminal qualifications for graduate faculty members.
Faculty members with PhDs constitute a
certain percentage of the faculty members of the three major for-profit graduate business programs mentioned. However, the distribution of faculty
members holding PhDs and MBAs is
not mentioned. Specific qualifications
for faculty members recruited by the
University of Phoenix, for example,
may be viewed at http://www.phoenix.
edu/faculty/index.asp.
For-profit institutions counter concerns about their faculty members by
suggesting that their instructors are practitioners and, therefore, offer “real
world” education. Still others shun quality issues by suggesting that they do not
compete with traditional programs. In
fact, some for-profit institutions make the
point that their programs deliberately target students (customers) who would not
enroll in traditional programs.
What makes these programs successful? Three factors appear to make the
greatest contribution: (a) cost, (b)
admission, and (c) convenience.
Although the cost of each of the three
programs appears to be similar to that of
a traditional, classroom-based MBA
program, the programs’ admission
requirements appear to be much less
rigorous. However, in our opinion, the
remaining factor of convenience is a
significant force behind the success of
these high-tech programs. For example,
the University of Phoenix (2004c) notes
that “a large part of our mission is convenience.” Citing Thomas Russell’s
(2002) book, The No Significant Difference Phenomenon, the University of
Phoenix’s Web site (2004d) implies
that, when compared with an in-class
pedagogy, distance learning is more
effective. From a consumer-oriented
perspective, these three factors are
clearly desirable and provide a substantive basis for competing in the higher
education market.
A key to the future of the online
MBA is employer receptiveness to the
degree. Although the University of
Phoenix (2004e) responds with an
emphatic “Yes” to the question of
whether employers grant equal value
to the new degrees and traditional
ones, it offers no evidence to support
the claim. The fact is that it is still too
early in the life of this new technology
to give a definitive assessment. Never-
theless, there is some evidence on
which to draw.
First, there is ample indication that the
business community sees technologybased education and training as costeffective. For example, Drake Beam
Morin (2001), a training consulting firm,
conducted a recent survey of training
and human resource managers and
found that 94% considered technologybased learning a viable option for teaching professional development. Seventyfour percent indicated that they believed
that it would be the most common professional training medium within the
next 5 years. Finally, 81% of those
respondents found technology-based
learning to be a cost-effective alternative
to classroom instruction for business
professionals.
Second, there is indirect evidence that
employers see distance-learning MBA
programs as desirable. Several online
institutions, such as Capella University
and Western Governors University,
prominently list their business “partners”
on their Web sites (http://www.
capella.edu/ and http:// www.wgu.edu/).
Third, the reputation of Duke University’s (2004) global executive MBA
implicitly requires the support of the
students’ employers. The criteria for
admission state that applicants should
have a minimum of 10 years of management experience and should have, or
should expect to have shortly, international managerial responsibilities.
Chase Manhattan Bank’s director of
education was quoted as saying that the
Duke program attracted Chase’s support
of employees’ enrollment because the
program requires students to work as
managers do in a real-life international
environment (Vogelstein, 2000).
Fourth, there is market evidence that
investors see a bright future for the forprofit, online university. The Apollo
Group, Inc., the parent company of the
University of Phoenix, continues to outperform the broader market and the
Chronicle Index of For-Profit Higher
Education (2005). In short, investors see
this company as having a very bright
future. The Chronicle Index, a composite
of nine publicly traded higher education
companies, was up more than 500%
since December 31, 1999 (Chronicle
Index . . .).
March/April 2005
243
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Despite these pieces of indirect evidence, the question remains regarding
whether employers will value the job
candidate with the online degree as
much as the candidate with the traditional degree. There is no definitive
answer yet to this question. Human
resource managers are maintaining a
neutral position at this point (Fisher,
2003; Lankford, 2001).
The high-tech MBA degree is evolving. The demand is there, and there are
many willing suppliers in this market.
It seems likely that there will always
be a variety of MBA programs available, ranging from the traditional oncampus program to the strictly online
program, as well as all kinds of combined programs.
Graduate business education is less
than a century old, and this latest technological revolution in higher education is
still in its infancy. However, the institutional forms that have been developed for
this type of education have adapted to
new technologies and new environments
at an increasingly rapid pace. The
demand for knowledgeboth the creation of that knowledge and its
transferis growing. The delivery of
that knowledge will certainly change,
and the form of the institutions will necessarily respond to those changes.
NOTES
1. At least 37 states have distance-learning higher education Web sites. A number have some consortium of institutions that offer online degree programs. For example, the Kentucky Virtual
University offers degrees ranging from associate of
arts to master’s degrees, including the MBA
(http://www.kcvu.org/). The state of Tennessee
offers two programs, the Regents Degree program
by the Tennessee Board of Regents (http://
www.tn.regentsdegrees.org) and the University of
Tennessee’s New College (http://newcollege. tennessee.edu/homepage.htm). Initially, these programs only offer associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.
244
Journal of Education for Business
2. A little arithmetic will indicate that all three
charge around $1,460–$1,600 per course.
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ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
An Update on the High-Tech MBA
Reuben Kyle & Troy A. Festervand
To cite this article: Reuben Kyle & Troy A. Festervand (2005) An Update on the High-Tech MBA,
Journal of Education for Business, 80:4, 240-244, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.80.4.240-244
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.80.4.240-244
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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An Update on the High-Tech MBA
REUBEN KYLE
TROY A. FESTERVAND
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
J
ust 3 years ago, as the MBA degree
was going “high-tech” and for-profit,
the future of graduate business education
appeared to be unbounded. Indeed, the
hostile takeover of the MBA by for-profit, online institutions seemed virtually
imminent. Has this vision become reality?
What is the future of graduate business
study? Who will deliver the program, and
what will be the role of technology in the
graduate business curriculum? In this
article, we report on the current status of
the MBA with regard to these questions
and reflect on the MBA degree’s
prospects.
ABSTRACT. The popularity of the
master’s of business administration
(MBA) degree has resulted in booming enrollments in the United States
and around the world. In the late
1990s, the MBA degree seemed to be
in danger of being taken over by
trends in high technology. First, forprofit providers gained students and
credibility to such an extent that
respected traditional not-for-profit
universities were tempted to create
new for-profit subsidiaries. Second,
online delivery became the “medium
of the future.” Third, the dot-com
explosion made technology-related
programs attractive. In this article, the
authors evaluate the current status of
the MBA, update these three developments of the degree programs, and
reflect on the MBA degree’s prospects
for the future.
Incentives for Pursuing Graduate
Business Education
It is not surprising that the economic
incentives for pursuing postgraduate
education, especially the MBA, remain
powerful. The U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics (2003b) reported that full-time
workers aged 25 and older with a master’s degree earn about 19% more than
those with an undergraduate degree and
90% more than those with a high school
diploma. As of the second quarter of
2003, the premium for women with a
bachelor’s degree or higher, as compared with those with a high school
degree, was 77%; the corresponding figure for men was nearly 83% (U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003a).
240
Journal of Education for Business
The Graduate Management Admissions Council’s (2003) Global MBA
Survey reported that students in 2003
were anticipating a 56% increase in
salary on completion of their degrees.
The 4,123 students from 96 schools surveyed by the GMAC reported that their
median base salary earned before starting their MBA studies was $50,000 and
that their median expected salary on
graduation was $75,000. Not surprisingly, enrollment in graduate business
education programs has responded to
these anticipated earnings premiums.
Over the past 3 decades, graduate
degrees awarded in business have
increased steadily from about 11% of
total graduate degrees awarded in
1970–1971 to almost 25% in
2000–2001. Likewise, the total number
of master’s degrees awarded to business
majors has grown, with some increases
and decreases, from about 26,000 in
1970–1971 to more than 116,000 in
2000–2001 (U.S. Department of Education, 2003a). Furthermore, enrollment in
graduate business programs can be
expected to increase, at least in the short
term, because the number of Graduate
Management Admissions Tests (GMAT)
taken worldwide exploded from about
130,000 in 2000 to more than 161,000 in
2001–2002 (Graduate Management
Admissions Council, 2003).
Much of this international increase is
occurring throughout the Asia-Pacific
region. According to an Indian School of
Business analysis, there were 170,000
applications and 11,000 MBA degrees
awarded in 74 prominent Asia-Pacific
business schools in 2002, and this
demand is expected to continue (Tan,
2003). The surge in demand for the
MBA in this region (e.g., China,
Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand) is
being led by managers whose companies
have weathered the global economic
slowdown and are in a growth cycle
(Tan). Perhaps these levels of demand,
both current and projected, explain why
so many U.S. business schools have
either gone offshore by partnering with
one or more foreign universities or have
developed online MBA programs.
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For-Profit Programs
During the 1990s, virtually any
online enterprise looked like a sure winner. However, with the return to economic reality and the passage of dotcom euphoria, many online ventures
disappeared. Such was not the case with
for-profit universities. Not only have
online enrollments continued to grow,
but, through 2003, for-profit higher education enterprises outperformed the
stock market by a wide margin. The
Apollo Group’s University of Phoenix
now has 124 locations in 26 states with
an enrollment of about 152,000 students
(Selingo, 2003). University of Phoenix
students may pursue an MBA, along
with a number of other degree programs, either online, at one of several
campuses around the country, or
through FlexNet®, a combination of the
two (University of Phoenix, 2004a).
Other major for-profit institutions are
Capella University, DeVry University,
Strayer University, and Sylvan Learning
Systems’ National Technological University, all of which offer graduate business degree programs. In fact, according
to Selingo (2003), there are about 750
for-profit degree-granting institutions
with more than 400,000 undergraduate
and graduate students.
Just before the dot-com bubble burst,
the appeal of for-profit operations
attracted some traditional, even distinguished, not-for-profit universities. For
example, New York University created
NYUonline, Inc. as a for-profit subsidiary in 1998. In 2000, Columbia
University teamed with the London
School of Economics and Business and
a number of other prestigious institutions to create a for-profit operation,
Fathom.com, to explore opportunities
for online education. Unlike the true
commercial education companies,
these ventures by traditional universities have not met with success. By
November 2001, the NYUonline venture was shut down, and its successful
courses were transferred to the University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (“N.Y.U. Shuts Down an
Internet Venture,” 2001). Likewise, in
January 2003, Columbia announced
that the Fathom experiment was being
closed down (Information Today, Inc.,
2003). Clearly, these for-profit MBA
“wannabes” found that the transition
from the traditional collegiate model to
business-managed institutions was not
easy or guaranteed. However, for-profit
higher education has proven to be a
very successful business enterprise for
some, and market analysts predict it to
be a high-growth industry for the foreseeable future.
Online Degree Programs
The time when students entered the
academy and sequestered themselves in
a remote rural location for 4 or more
years is long past. According to the
National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES; U.S. Department of Education,
2003b), only 27% of 13 million U.S.
undergraduate college students fit the
traditional age cohort and attend college
for 4 consecutive years.
In 1970, about one third of full-time
college students were employed. By the
mid-1990s, that percentage had
increased to nearly 50% (U.S. Department of Education, 2003b). Over 65%
of the high school graduating class of
2002 enrolled in college, and, of those,
90% became full-time students. Among
full-time students, nearly 43% were
employed or looking for work in October 2002, whereas almost 76% of parttime students were employed (U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003b).
In response to the changing workrelated circumstances of students, colleges and universities have offered
courses and entire degree programs in
formats that are much more flexible
than the traditional one-size-fits-all
model. The NCES (U.S. Department of
Education, 2003c) reported that, in
2000–2001, 56% of 2- and 4-year
degree-granting institutions offered
some distance-learning courses. A study
just released by the Sloan Consortium
(2003) reported that more than 1.6 million students took at least one online
course in the fall semester 2002, and
that by fall 2003 that number was projected to grow to 1.9 million, representing more than an 18% growth rate.
The 2003 MBAInfo database indicated
that 208 institutions worldwide offer
MBA programs online or through distance learning. As of October 2003,
USNews.com (2003) was listing 246
online graduate degree programs, up
from 48 in 2001. This Web site listed 41
graduate business programs accredited by
the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB) International. The AACSB Overview of U.S.
Business Schools reported that 8 of the
303 institutions that it surveyed had fulltime distance-learning MBA programs,
and 43, with 3.1% of total enrollment,
had part-time distance-learning programs
(AACSB International, 2002).
Virtual universities such as Capella
University (http://www.capellauniversity.
edu/), Western Governors University
(http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/index.html),
and the National Technological University (http://www.ntu.edu/)1 represent a
new type of university. Capella, like the
University of Phoenix, is a for-profit
institution, but it is entirely an online
operation. Western Governors University,
founded by the governors of a group of
western states, offers no courses of its
own but coordinates access to the courses
of more than 40 colleges, universities,
and corporate institutions. The university
presently offers associate’s and bachelor’s degrees and a master’s of arts in
learning and technology.
Students earn degrees and certificates
by demonstrating competence in specified areas of a program instead of earning
credits by taking and passing courses. To
prepare for the competency examination,
students may take courses at the participating institutions via distance learning,
either online or through correspondence.
The National Technological University
(NTU, 2004) also is a consortium of universities (27) that provide online courses
under the NTU name. Eighteen master’s
degree programs are offered, including
an MBA. Tuition varies by course and
institution but typically is $1,000 per
credit hour.
Still other graduate business opportunities exist in what might be considered
hybrid or niche markets. For example,
Duke University offers a 19-month global
executive MBA costing $107,000, in
which students spend some time in class
and some online (http://www.fuqua.
March/April 2005
241
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duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html). Currently, admission to this program does not
require the GMAT but is based on the
applicant’s work experience and previous
academic work for determination of student–program suitability. Likewise, the
College of Business at the University of
Tennessee–Knoxville (UTK) offers a
physician’s executive MBA program
online (http://www.pemba.utk.edu/). The
12-month $48,000 program, exclusively
for physicians, requires four 1-week, oncampus residence periods. The course-
(http://www.mb ainfo.com/), which provides details on 2,500 MBA programs
from 1,300 universities, business
schools, and management colleges in
126 countries, indicates that there are 85
programs at 65 institutions worldwide
with a focus on e-commerce, new technologies, technology management, and
information technology and communications management.
These numerous technology programs notwithstanding, the appeal of
information technology apparently has
Future MBA graduates will continue to be trained to
function internationally, but that training will become
more culturally specific.
work, for which no business prerequisite
or GMAT test is required, consists of 3
modules of multiple topics, to be completed primarily via the Internet.
Why have these programs succeeded?
In the case of UTK’s online physician’s
executive MBA program, one can surmise that (a) the offering may be filling
a void in a market that can afford the
lofty price of the degree, (b) the students
in the program do not have the time to
take a comparable set of courses in the
classroom, or (c) the students generally
are seeking the degree for reasons other
than employment or career advancement. Likewise, the image and prestige
associated with Duke’s national ranking
among top-10 MBA programs allows it
to command top dollar for its global
executive degree.
Technology-Oriented Degree
Programs
During the glory days of the dot-com
bubble, many new degree programs in
information technology and electronic
commerce were developed. The AACSB
International reported 66 member MBA
programs with e-commerce emphases in
existence (AACSB International, 2002).
A search on the MBAinfo.com database
242
Journal of Education for Business
begun to fade. For example, beginning
in 1997, ComputerWorld has been surveying 1,000 campus recruiters to produce its ranking of top U.S. university
techno-MBA programs (http://www.
computerworld.com). The magazine has
not published the survey since 2001.
What happened? Perhaps the skills
required to function effectively in the
global marketplace changed.
We can predict with a high degree of
certainty that tomorrow’s MBA graduates will find themselves operating in an
increasingly global environment that
employs increasing amounts of technology (Richards-Wilson, 2002). However,
although these skills are critical, success
in tomorrow’s global marketplace will
demand skills that transcend traditional
and homogeneous areas of expertise. For
example, future MBA graduates will
continue to be trained to function internationally, but that training will become
more culturally specific. Such culturespecific training is already available from
both academic institutions (e.g., the
French DESS degree/system, which
offers French MBA students seven nationspecific study programs) and commercial
providers (e.g., http://www.MiddleEast
Training.com). Increasing competition,
financial pressures, and myriad forms of
risk will only accelerate the demand for
such specificity.
The Future
The evidence suggests that the hightech MBA program is alive and well, surviving both boom and bust. Despite some
retrenchment, there is little question that
online delivery and technology-oriented
programs will continue to survive and
likely prosper. However, there are hurdles
that must be overcome.
The question facing many institutions
of higher learning—and schools of business in particular—is how to meet this
future. How important is the quality of
the education? Is mode of delivery,
along with the associated convenience
factor, critical? Is the value of an MBA
delivered largely or totally online by a
for-profit institution equal to or greater
than that of a traditional MBA?
Regarding the quality issue, how do
the major for-profit universities—the
University of Phoenix, Capella University, and Strayer University—measure
up? What is the relationship between
price and quality? How do the faculty
members compare with those at the traditional programs?
Many for-profit programs do not
require admissions tests. The University
of Phoenix (2004b), which is accredited
by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, charges $545 per credit hour and requires 3 years of work experience and an undergraduate grade point
average (GPA) of 2.5 for admission.
Some for-profit programs even advertise
that no GMAT is required. Capella University, which is accredited by the Higher
Learning Commission, charges $1,575
for a 3-hour online MBA course and
requires a 2.7 undergraduate GPA for
admission. Strayer University, which is
accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, charges
$324.50 per credit hour for each 4.5-credit-hour course in its 54-hour curriculum.
Admission to Strayer’s program is based
on acceptable performance in one of the
following three criteria: (a) GMAT score
(at least 450), (b) GRE score (at least
1,000), and (c) GPA (minimum 2.75).
With a little arithmetic, we can deduce
that all three institutions charge around
$1,460–$1,600 per course.2
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Still other online programs, such as
Capella University (2004a), give academic credit for nonacademic experiences. The contact hours may be substantially less than those of traditional
programs (e.g., the University of
Phoenix [2004a] requires students to
sign on at least five times per week and
post comments twice per week).
One means of quality assurance is
accreditation of institutions and programs by recognized accrediting organizations. The latest AACSB standards
for master’s level degree programs,
specifically Standards 18 and 19, indicate a responsibility by the institution
for assuring “the quality of learning . . .
regardless of where or how it takes
place” (AACSB International, 2004,
pp. 67–69). Standard 20 requires that
master’s programs “provide sufficient
time, content coverage, student-effort,
and student-faculty interaction to
assure that the learning goals are
accomplished” (AACSB International,
2004, p. 69). These standards, deliberately or otherwise, would affect the
ability of online graduate degree programs to become accredited by the
AACSB International.
Many of the for-profit institutions are
accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, member of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools.
Capella University (2004b) adds the following phrase to that information: “the
same agency that accredits Big Ten
schools in the Midwest.” Clearly, Capella
is eager to assure prospective students of
the quality of its product.
At the same time, none of these institutions are accredited by the AACSB
International, the most highly regarded
and sought-after form of business school
accreditation. A few AACSB-accredited
graduate programs do offer online
MBAs (e.g., Indiana University and the
University of Colorado–Denver). However, achieving AACSB accreditation for
many online programs is likely to be a
long-term challenge.
Still another quality-related issue
associated with the for-profit model
concerns faculty credentials. All business schools accredited by the AACSB
International require terminal qualifications for graduate faculty members.
Faculty members with PhDs constitute a
certain percentage of the faculty members of the three major for-profit graduate business programs mentioned. However, the distribution of faculty
members holding PhDs and MBAs is
not mentioned. Specific qualifications
for faculty members recruited by the
University of Phoenix, for example,
may be viewed at http://www.phoenix.
edu/faculty/index.asp.
For-profit institutions counter concerns about their faculty members by
suggesting that their instructors are practitioners and, therefore, offer “real
world” education. Still others shun quality issues by suggesting that they do not
compete with traditional programs. In
fact, some for-profit institutions make the
point that their programs deliberately target students (customers) who would not
enroll in traditional programs.
What makes these programs successful? Three factors appear to make the
greatest contribution: (a) cost, (b)
admission, and (c) convenience.
Although the cost of each of the three
programs appears to be similar to that of
a traditional, classroom-based MBA
program, the programs’ admission
requirements appear to be much less
rigorous. However, in our opinion, the
remaining factor of convenience is a
significant force behind the success of
these high-tech programs. For example,
the University of Phoenix (2004c) notes
that “a large part of our mission is convenience.” Citing Thomas Russell’s
(2002) book, The No Significant Difference Phenomenon, the University of
Phoenix’s Web site (2004d) implies
that, when compared with an in-class
pedagogy, distance learning is more
effective. From a consumer-oriented
perspective, these three factors are
clearly desirable and provide a substantive basis for competing in the higher
education market.
A key to the future of the online
MBA is employer receptiveness to the
degree. Although the University of
Phoenix (2004e) responds with an
emphatic “Yes” to the question of
whether employers grant equal value
to the new degrees and traditional
ones, it offers no evidence to support
the claim. The fact is that it is still too
early in the life of this new technology
to give a definitive assessment. Never-
theless, there is some evidence on
which to draw.
First, there is ample indication that the
business community sees technologybased education and training as costeffective. For example, Drake Beam
Morin (2001), a training consulting firm,
conducted a recent survey of training
and human resource managers and
found that 94% considered technologybased learning a viable option for teaching professional development. Seventyfour percent indicated that they believed
that it would be the most common professional training medium within the
next 5 years. Finally, 81% of those
respondents found technology-based
learning to be a cost-effective alternative
to classroom instruction for business
professionals.
Second, there is indirect evidence that
employers see distance-learning MBA
programs as desirable. Several online
institutions, such as Capella University
and Western Governors University,
prominently list their business “partners”
on their Web sites (http://www.
capella.edu/ and http:// www.wgu.edu/).
Third, the reputation of Duke University’s (2004) global executive MBA
implicitly requires the support of the
students’ employers. The criteria for
admission state that applicants should
have a minimum of 10 years of management experience and should have, or
should expect to have shortly, international managerial responsibilities.
Chase Manhattan Bank’s director of
education was quoted as saying that the
Duke program attracted Chase’s support
of employees’ enrollment because the
program requires students to work as
managers do in a real-life international
environment (Vogelstein, 2000).
Fourth, there is market evidence that
investors see a bright future for the forprofit, online university. The Apollo
Group, Inc., the parent company of the
University of Phoenix, continues to outperform the broader market and the
Chronicle Index of For-Profit Higher
Education (2005). In short, investors see
this company as having a very bright
future. The Chronicle Index, a composite
of nine publicly traded higher education
companies, was up more than 500%
since December 31, 1999 (Chronicle
Index . . .).
March/April 2005
243
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Despite these pieces of indirect evidence, the question remains regarding
whether employers will value the job
candidate with the online degree as
much as the candidate with the traditional degree. There is no definitive
answer yet to this question. Human
resource managers are maintaining a
neutral position at this point (Fisher,
2003; Lankford, 2001).
The high-tech MBA degree is evolving. The demand is there, and there are
many willing suppliers in this market.
It seems likely that there will always
be a variety of MBA programs available, ranging from the traditional oncampus program to the strictly online
program, as well as all kinds of combined programs.
Graduate business education is less
than a century old, and this latest technological revolution in higher education is
still in its infancy. However, the institutional forms that have been developed for
this type of education have adapted to
new technologies and new environments
at an increasingly rapid pace. The
demand for knowledgeboth the creation of that knowledge and its
transferis growing. The delivery of
that knowledge will certainly change,
and the form of the institutions will necessarily respond to those changes.
NOTES
1. At least 37 states have distance-learning higher education Web sites. A number have some consortium of institutions that offer online degree programs. For example, the Kentucky Virtual
University offers degrees ranging from associate of
arts to master’s degrees, including the MBA
(http://www.kcvu.org/). The state of Tennessee
offers two programs, the Regents Degree program
by the Tennessee Board of Regents (http://
www.tn.regentsdegrees.org) and the University of
Tennessee’s New College (http://newcollege. tennessee.edu/homepage.htm). Initially, these programs only offer associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.
244
Journal of Education for Business
2. A little arithmetic will indicate that all three
charge around $1,460–$1,600 per course.
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