Part-time MBA programs feature flexibility

Students study online, have less campus time

For part-time MBA students who juggle a full-time job with school, making it to campus several times a week for classes, study groups and meetings with faculty can be a stressful challenge.

It’s among the reasons Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business is adding a new option for part-time MBA candidates who are also working professionals in the Pittsburgh region: a flexible program that mixes online classes during the week with immersive weekend experiences six times a year on its Oakland campus.

The school also hopes the new flexible option, scheduled to begin next fall, will help drive enrollment in its part-time program, which has been tracking downward the past few years, said Kate Barraclough, head of the MBA program at Tepper.

“I think it gets back to the changing nature of work,” she said. “The workday now seems to be endless. We’re hearing from students that this is a heavy lift: Their job is

intense, work hours are unpredictable, they may need to travel, and some have a young family.”

For its part-time evening program, which takes three years to complete, 25 students enrolled this fall, down from 42 two years ago.

Another 46 enrolled this fall in a part-time hybrid that mixes online courses and on-site weekend programs. This program is offered to out-of-town students, down from 49 two years ago.

MBA programs nationwide are having trouble attracting students.

Applications dropped by 7 percent last year for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit that administers the GMAT admissions exam.

Although more than 70 percent of schools reported enrollment declines in their full-time programs, CMU’s Tepper bucked the trend with a steady uptick in its full-time, two-year program.

It has 236 enrolled in the class scheduled to graduate in 2020, up from 228 set to graduate next year and 203 who graduated this year.

Karen Donovan, associate dean of graduate programs and executive education at Duquesne University’s Palumbo-Donahue School of Business, said one reason MBA applications are down is the strong economy.

“Typically, students are not going back to school when they have good jobs,” she said.

And when they do, many want specialized degrees that can help them advance at their current employers, she said.

At Duquesne, for instance, its one-year, MBA Sustainable Practices degree includes a small cohort of 15 to 20 full-time students a year who focus their studies on sustainability issues in specific industries and travel overseas for a week to 10 days.

Last year’s class explored mining industries in Peru, and the current class next spring will study pharmaceutical and chemical industries in Spain.

Like most business schools, Duquesne’s offers a mix of online and campusbased classes.

“Students like the online classes because it gives them flexibility,” Ms. Donovan said. “Online, they still have interaction and can come to campus and meet with the faculty.”

Chatham University also offers online and hybrid formats for both its part-time and full-time MBA students.

Bill Campbell, Chatham’s spokesman, said interest has been strong in specialized dual-degree programs that pair MBAs with a master of sustainability or master of food studies.

At the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Pittsburgh, students can blend online and on-campus courses in the part-time MBA program and also in a specialized executive MBA for health care.

In the health care MBA, students meet one Friday and Saturday a month on campus and complete courses online the rest of the time.

Pitt has tried to add more online options to accommodate the changing demographics of Pittsburgh and its workforce, said William Valenta, assistant dean for MBA and executive programs at the Katz Graduate School.

For years, classes were held in the evenings and “most students worked [in] Downtown, so it was an easy bus ride to Oakland and then to go home,” he said.

“Now our students are spread geographically … and we’re trying to provide them with a different level of flexibility within the program.”

Among the reasons MBA enrollments are down, Mr. Valenta said, is a decline in the number of employers willing to reimburse students for tuition.

But with a low national unemployment rate of 3.7 percent, the trend could change, he said.

“We’re pretty close to full employment, so we’re beginning to wonder if employers are going to have to offer educational benefits as a retention strategy,” he said.

CMU’s new part-time flex MBA for local students is modeled after the hybrid program Tepper has offered since 2013 to MBA candidates who live far from campus. They participate in live, online coursework twice a week and meet as a cohort in Pittsburgh and other cities six times a year for weekend classes and activities.

Allison Braund-Harris, a manager, strategy and account at New York Citybased branding agency Beardwood&Co, said the flexibility of Tepper’s MBA hybrid was critical to her being able to enroll and keep working.

She taps into the live, online course discussions from any location a couple times a week and views online lectures frequently on the subway during her commute to work.

The weekend sessions held in Pittsburgh and other cities include classes, visits to corporations, leadership sessions and social outings that “build camaraderie,” Ms. Braund-Harris said.

Her husband, a web developer in New York City, is also enrolled in the cohort that is scheduled to graduate in May 2020.

They travel together to the weekend sessions where other classmates sometimes bring spouses and children.

“That adds another level of engagement,” Ms. Braund-Harris said. “We see their families, so you’re much closer than you think an online MBA would be.”

Ms. Barraclough hopes Tepper’s part-time flex option for Pittsburgh students will help them bond in similar ways and provide more time to get involved in professional development and extracurricular activities connected to the MBA program, such as a Saturday morning leadership program.

Working women with young children who sometimes face additional demands because of child care responsibilities might especially benefit from the format, she said.

“If they can do this program on the road, or if they’re working late and don’t have to come to campus during the week … we’re able to remove some of the day-to-day distractions,” she said.