MBA update: enrollments down in Indiana and across the country.

AuthorMcKimmie, Kathy
PositionEDUCATION - Management of business administration

ENROLLMENT IS DOWN or flat in many of Indiana's MBA programs, mirroring the situation across the nation in the last few years. The reasons are numerous, from fewer international students to a sluggish economy to increased competition from distance learning programs, some out-of-state.

Competition in the Indianapolis area has taken a toll on enrollment at Butler. "There's been a decline over the last three years," says Russ Kershaw, associate dean of academic programs and director of graduate programs. "Historically, we had 350 students at any given time, now it's 200 to 250. There are 13 available MBA programs offered to people in Central Indiana. It's certainly increased competition for a smaller pool of applicants."

Flexibility has always been a big selling point for Butler University's MBA students. "It's not a lockstep, cohort-based program," says Kershaw. "It's part-time, targeted to people who work. In our program, students can and are pursuing a degree at their own pace." They have up to five years to complete the course work.

The Butler Business Accelerator, a new initiative funded with a $22 million Lilly Endowment grant, matches undergraduate and graduate business students with mature Indiana businesses poised for new growth.

The University of Indianapolis makes its mark in the MBA market by developing custom programs for companies. Eleven companies are currently participating, three that have onsite classes for their employees exclusively, Rolls-Royce, Raytheon and Clarian Health. Customizing may mean adding concentrations or courses that are valuable to corporations, says Matt Will, associate dean and director of graduate business programs.

Whether in custom programs or through its regular program, concentrations in finance and supply-chain management, formerly called logistics, are in biggest demand at the moment, says Will. Last month the school began offering an MBA with a major in supply-chain management. Indiana's central location and growing number of logistics operations, like FedEx, UPS and Caterpillar Logistics, makes supply-chain management a hot skill-set for students.

The demand for finance is also "huge," says Will. "We don't have enough students to fill job requests in the finance area." Although there's been a slowdown in applications for the MBA program overall, the finance major is still growing. There's only moderate demand for the other three MBA majors, technology management, organizational leadership and...

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