Abstract
Role and
significance of Higher Education in business, particularly for the MBA program,
have continuously evolved, progressed, and adjusted over the years. Major
driving forces for this are the ever changing workforce requirements, available
technologies, and expectations of the MBA graduates. In the recent past,
interest and demand for fulltime residential MBA programs has declined,
compelling us to reevaluate and critically reexamine all aspects of an MBA
program objectives, content, focus, use of technology, and the delivery mode.
The target student profile is also changing, as more and more mature working
professionals are returning to academia to upgrade their academic portfolio, as
required for more responsibilities and job opportunities. Institutions are
addressing this by creating programs that are more flexible, inclusive, and
supportive. Also, there is a growing notion that successful entrepreneurs do
not need an MBA program, and to address that, academia is adjusting their
programs to be more valuable to innovations. Online and virtual education is
growing and in demand, and the recent pandemic has made this more visible. This
technology based online mode is being evaluated to enable busy professionals to
pursue their education without compromising their current job roles and family
responsibilities. Online collaboration is opening opportunities for improving
soft skill for long term benefits. Demand for tech savvy graduates is one of
the trends that is shaping the business education in academia. Big Data and
Artificial Intelligence technologies are in demand, more so in developed economies
where highly competitive environments force companies to be more inventive in
defining value propositions. Business graduates without an understanding of
technology and how this can be leveraged for business objectives will be
hopelessly stuck in the 20th century and be at a disadvantage in the 21st
century. World population is coming closer, and this wave is altering the MBA
student mix. A growing number of MBA programs will become blended combining on
campus activities with distance learning or even fully digital. All products
have a finite lifespan, and, when necessary, this lifespan can and should be
extended. The MBA program also must evaluate new growth paths, which could be
in a different direction. Failure to do so will lead to obsolescence. This
paper looks at the trends in online asynchronous MBA programs and the direction
academia is headed in this space.
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IJBMS by IPRPD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.