The head of the Spanish business school that topped the Financial Times’ latest annual ranking of online MBAs says the global market for the provision of the qualification is in need of an overhaul.
“There’s got to be a shake-out given the differences between all these programmes,” said Lee Newman, dean at Madrid-based IE. “The question is how to demarcate and to differentiate.”
His comments come as applications to business schools overall are on the rise, including a slight uptick in demand for online MBA (OMBA) courses, which give students greater flexibility in combining study with work. Despite increased interest in online degrees, they represent a relatively small part of the overall market.
The latest Graduate Management Admission Council survey of prospective business school students globally last year suggested just 13 per cent, which is consistent with its figures over the past decade, were considering the online degree compared with 52 per cent for the traditional two-year in-person MBA.
Online MBA table 2025
Read the report and full ranking of 15 programmes
Online degrees vary widely in cost, duration, format and type of student, with participants in those ranked by the FT typically older and more experienced than those studying for the on-campus MBA and with different expectations from the degree.
Most work full-time while studying and span a far broader age range, with the majority aged over 30 years old and many in their 40s or beyond.
Newman said there was a strong intersection in the age of students at IE on its OMBA and on its executive MBA, which is part-time and offers some study online but also brings participants together on campus periodically for face-to-face study and networking.
“We are taking a hard look at our entire portfolio,” he said. “There’s something fundamentally odd about so much overlap. It’s a pretty artificial divide. I think the market is confused. Everyone is questioning what the right formula is.”
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“All our data suggests a fairly consistent demand of about 10 per cent of the total MBA market for entirely online study,” said Andrew Crisp from CarringtonCrisp, an educational consultancy. “My sense is that this will remain with demand from different parts of the world and different age groups looking for an MBA degree.”
Some schools have resisted offering online MBAs, partly to avoid cannibalising their in-person offerings. The boundaries have blurred since the Covid-19 pandemic with most courses offering some online modules.
Lillian Mills, dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, said that with strong demand for in-person business degrees, she saw no need to introduce an online variant. “The value of the human connection of in-person has not disappeared.”
Among 15 business schools in the FT ranking, IE alumni reported the highest increase in salaries to an average of $209,202 three years after graduates completed their course.
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Its OMBA had the largest share of international students and scored best on environmental, social and governance teaching, as well as being the closest to gender parity among its faculty and on its advisory board.
IE was one of three ranked schools to achieve gender parity in its student cohort, and came in joint third place for aims achieved as assessed by its graduates, behind University of Southern California: Marshall — which reported the top average salary of $228,500 — and University of Florida: Warrington.
While salary increase was rated as a very important motivation among students, cited by nearly two-thirds of participants who took the ranked OMBAs, they judged personal development, improved career opportunities and management development even higher.
Participation in the FT ranking is voluntary. Schools must meet criteria including recognition by one of the world’s two leading accreditation bodies, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or Equis, and reach a statistically significant number of responses by alumni.
Salary and salary increase comprise the largest weights in the overall ranking, which is complemented by factors including value for money, career progress and the quality of academic research based on recent publications in leading FT50 journals — the metric on which University of Florida: Warrington scored highest.
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Three years on, the highest share of OMBA graduates worked in the technology sector, followed by manufacturing or industrial jobs, and then by finance or insurance, health and consulting.
A separate analysis published at the end of last year by the Digital Education Council, a network of higher education institutions, suggested that among 161 online MBA programmes around the world and 314 other masters’ programmes, OMBA courses were more innovative.
It said they combined more formats than other masters courses, and were typically more expensive. It found the median cost of OMBAs in North America was $43,500, falling to $29,190 in Europe and $9,350 in Asia.
