Demand for MBAs soar as professionals look to upskill

MBA enrolments have as much as doubled at some universities as business content is reshaped to reflect the global crisis.

COVID-19 has not only changed the way universities teach their students, but it is also shaping the curriculum.

Skills such as resilience, risk management and leading remote teams have become a focus in business courses, while contemporary case studies are shining a spotlight on moral and legal dilemmas sparked by the pandemic.

Many Australian universities have reported increased demand for MBAs (Master of Business Administration) as leaders’ skills are pressure-tested by the pandemic and professionals concerned about job security look to upskill.

Mid-year MBA enrolments at The University of Queensland Business School roughly doubled last year, while online MBAs through UNSW Business School’s Australian Graduate School of Management experienced an 85 per cent jump in demand.

COVID-19 case studies are being used in university courses. Picture: iStock

AGSM @ UNSW Business School academic director Associate Professor Michele Roberts said parts of their specialist technology MBA were completely revised in response to COVID-19.

“In our data course, we explored how governments around the world were using data and test results to make decisions,” Dr Roberts said.

“In statistical modelling, we used a dynamic program that shows us how data could predict the number of hospitalised patients and fatalities in any country depending on the timing of the lockdown.”

Dr Roberts said the university had already been planning a course on crisis and issue leadership but it was accelerated following the pandemic.

Similarly, their entrepreneurship and innovation course was altered to highlight business success in the face of new issues such as evolving supply chains.

The University of Melbourne academic director of executive MBA programs Professor Vivek Chaudhri said COVID-19 had also highlighted the need for content surrounding risk and uncertainty.

“Ambiguity is something we have to deal with,” he said.

“There are also some practical things — how do we manage remote teams? How do we work in a workspace where (not) everyone is in the office nine to five, five days a week? What does that mean in terms of managing teams and leadership?”

These are some of the questions Shae Brown, 31, will be able to answer once she begins her executive MBA through The University of Melbourne in March.

New MBA student Shae Brown, pictured with her son, Bowie. Picture: Michael Klein

The former small business owner and professional athlete was inspired to enrol after the pandemic and birth of her first child last year encouraged her to rethink her career.

“(That the course is being shaped by COVID-19) is a reflection of the world we are living in now,” the Aspendale resident said.

“We have to be adaptable and flexible … it’s an example of the MBA doing what it preaches.”

Queensland University of Technology Graduate School of Business’ Professor Melinda Edwards said moral dilemmas sparked by COVID-19 were also being addressed in their business courses.

“Making a choice between good and bad is usually easy but sometimes you have to make a choice between two goods, and it’s incredibly difficult if the two goods are health or the economy,” she said.

“COVID has highlighted so many ethical dilemmas in so many fields.”

There has been increased demand for MBAs. Picture: iStock

The pandemic was shaping content in RMIT’s Juris Doctor, too.

Graduate School of Business and Law dean Professor Kathy Douglas said students in her innovative justice course last year investigated the legal issues and options surrounding “homelessness in COVID-19 times”.

“We looked from the perspective of homeless people being moved into hotels because of the risk of infection; tenancy laws because people might not be able to pay their rent; and the potential breech of human rights through issues of not being able to congregate in large groups and not being able to leave the house,” she said.

“If a student can say ‘I was able to engage with a major societal problem such as pandemic and find solutions’, I can’t see any employer not valuing that.”

Originally published as Demand for MBAs soar as professionals look to upskill