The success stories of the last decade

Distance-learning business education has been one of the success stories of the last decade, and international demand has continued to rise in the last year. Although the recent GMAC applicant trends survey showed a sharp decline in applicant volume to full-time and part-time MBA programmes around the world, 58% of online and distance MBA programmes reported their international application volume including those from India either increased or stayed the same over the last year. During many professionals focus on earning in other words than learning, others see an possibility in a more flexible format of learning, combining study with a reassuring monthly pay packet.

Advances in innovation, and an increasingly mobile audience of professionals around the globe have given rise to a number of mass-market providers who count their students in the thousands. The University of Phoenix has close to half a million postgraduate business students, during in India or Indonesia distance learners are in the millions. Many observers expect the Indian distance learning market to double every year for the then five years.

Year of internet study

But with certain courses in India offered for as little as 200 for a year of internet study, and little regard for candidate selectivity, such providers have faced heavy criticism for their supermarket approach. Top-tier international business schools have been slow to enter into this space, leaving professionals who wanted to acquire an MBA of genuinely international stature with a frustrating lack of choice. Nevertheless, a new breed of distance learning MBA programmes from so then-ranked business schools just as the University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler in the US, and IE Business School in Madrid, are now entering the market to join the likes of the UKs Warwick Business School, applying stricter entrance criteria and utilising a blended methodology of face-to-face learning and online modules. They allow executives to study where they want, when they want, and receive a degree of equal standing to the full-time variety.

UNC believes that 20 years from now many more business schools will be competing in the online space, and is not compromising on the quality of the course content, the admission standards or the cost of the programme. High-quality teaching and learning experiences are critical to our approach, and we are ready to shatter perceptions about online education, said Douglas Shackelford, associate dean of MBA@UNC. Innovation has transformed all parts of our lives and, ultimately, it will redefine education, too. We have the possibility to rethink how we teach what our students need to know, and UNC Kenan-Flagler has a rare possibility to lead a transformation.

IE Business School and Brown University have joined forces to offer an Executive MBA programme that goes beyond the boundaries of the traditional MBA, integrating innovative management studies with the liberal arts. Admission to this 15-month long online programme is as well highly selective, focusing on applicants with strong leadership potential and an average of 10 years work experience. The programme includes seven-week-long residencies in Rhode Island and Madrid, with online programme elements that allow participants from anywhere in the world.

In addition to online forum discussions, participants work with a variety of digital distance learning tools, from video conferencing and instant messenger to online documents and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), to overcome geographical and time constraints. Maybe surprisingly, the schools feel that this virtual connectedness builds stronger communities among students, professors, and programme staff than in most face-to-face programmes. For IEs Professor Pable Martin de Holan, the programme will teach students how to see the world in a different way. re going to teach students something that will allow them to reinvent themselves all the time, to rediscover themselves and in so doing, teach them how to change your world.

The UK provides one of the best examples of a leading business school committed to the distance learning format. The Warwick Business School draws on over 25 years of experience to deliver a Distance Learning MBA that combines a variety of teaching methods to provide students with flexibility and a global perspective. Rated #1 in the UK by The Economist, the programme has seen a 20% increase in applications in the last three years, attracting candidates from over 90 countries.

For executive director Jon Lees, the popularity of the DLMBA hinges on its flexibility. The programme offers the individual significantly fewer attendance commitments and much greater possibility to manage their study around work and family. This is important for the experienced cohort we recruit at Warwick Business School, with an average age of 34 on entry. Its as well more suited to working patterns which are more project-based, or require regular international travel that makes it difficult for individuals to commit to regular evening or weekend study.

After leading a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project aimed at developing an HIV vaccine, Romina Oxborough decided that she wanted to move industries. The Warwick DLMBA gave me the confidence to look at project management roles even if I did not have the industry experience. Romina hoped to bridge the business gap in her training and professional experience. My work involves finance, however I did not have the background to understand its overall impact on a firm. I wanted to become a senior manager in the pharmaceutical industry in a multinational company, and in point of fact believe that the programme has given me the tools and the credibility to do so.

Importantly for Oxborough, Warwick awards DLMBA students an MBA degree, not a distance learning MBA degree that some employers see as a lightweight qualification. While her studies, she joined Quintiles, the leading clinical innovation organisation, and now runs worldwide clinical trials with multi-million pound budgets. Studying for a full-time MBA was out of the question due to the cost implication of not having a job, she explains. After all, I did not want to miss out on the face-to-face interaction with faculty, and the chance to build a network with other students. Warwick offered the opportunity of doing both I could sign up for the DLMBA nevertheless include modules from the executive or full-time programmes. So, should the contingency arise to networking with the distance learning cohort, I have as well met many full-time and executive students.