Growing popularity for fast track MBA in the US
In the United States the traditional two-year MBA have ruled until now. Until recently the fast track program was only offered by a handful of Business Schools, but in the last couple of years more and more Institutions are starting to offer the accelerated MBA program.
Whether or not the big corporations will accept this version of the MBA, the business schools are responding to the marked demand. The one year MBAs are very popular in the Europe, and it could be an answer to compete for students from this market.
The market for post graduate studies is as everything else a market where the consumers set the demand. This demand might come from professionals with fulltime job experience, which wish to get back to work quickly. Several of the most popular schools like, Kellogg, Cornell and Columbia have adapted to this demand, and expect several schools following this track in the near future.
Two main issues needs to be faced when launching a fast track program; How should you get the program to contain everything that MBA graduates needs to learn and what are the challenges for the graduates when they are trying to find a job.
The employers are aware that the graduates haven’t learned everything, and that there is a great deal of internal company training required with any hiring. In this case companies will probably look more on the graduates previous work experience than the MBA. Some companies might look at the fast track MBA as a lightweight MBA or a short cut.
But looking to Europe, where the one year MBA program is established, we can see the potential. In Europe the One year MBA often require a minimum of 2 – 3 years work experience to enhance the level of professionalism in the classroom discussions. Maybe the US should raise the requirements for the work experience and provide the fast track MBAs strictly to a more mature group of students?
