The global pandemic and management education: Is management education a valuable long-lived financial asset?

• Main Authors: THOMAS, Howard, GHOSH, Aurobindo
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Business education; higher education; management education; value of education; Business; Higher Education; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7062
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The pandemic-induced surge of stimulus spending from major central banks and the subsequent adoption of socially distanced learning prompted a much-needed change in management education. Prior to the pandemic, many business schools had resisted transformative change mainly due to the administrators’ and faculty’s preference for the status quo. Potential participants in management programmes could now reevaluate their willingness to pay often high tuition fees and choose instead from the myriad of innovative often cheaper hybrid management degrees to enhance their own human capital asset rather than search for possibly higher returns in potentially inflated external assets (such as stocks and bonds). COVID-19 has unwrapped the potential asset value of management education to society due to the widespread acceptance and stronger appreciation of blended/hybrid learning in education across the board. Quality universities ranked just outside the cadre of elite schools have managed to democratize management education and make it more inclusive, using a creative mix of hybrid and in-person delivery at a better tuition price point. These new innovative offerings enabled prospective students to enroll for these technology-enabled, hybrid part-time MBA or professional degree programmes and enrich their human capital to address societal challenges more effectively.