University of Adelaide’s cut-price MBAs a response to recession

A cut-price MBA program is on offer at the University of Adelaide business school to foster enrolments at a tough time.

University of Adelaide’s Professor Noel Lindsay, dean of the business school that is offering cut-price MBA scholarships.

The University of Adelaide is ­offering a heavily discounted masters of business administration program to 200 candidates if they can begin the course in the first trimester next year.

The fixed fee of $20,000 for the MBA (Emerging Leaders) program scholarships — less than half of the usual $49,500 it charges — is a once-only offer, business school dean and pro vice-chancellor ­entrepreneurship, Noel Lindsay said.

The discount values the scholarships at almost $6m, to be funded by the business school. Half will be offered to enrollees who are ­recent graduates and the other half to those already employed.

The offer has been made at a time when professional employment prospects have taken a blow due to the COVID-19 recession.

“Evidence shows that people look to upskill or re-skill during periods of recession,” Professor Lindsay said. However, at the ­moment tuition costs were a ­potential barrier to those who want to embark on further study.

The scholarships would make the program launched last year “even more accessible than ­before” and students could spread the course over up to 4½ years, if desired, without any fee increase.

Along with the usual MBA ­subjects, those enrolled in the ­program are offered extra-curricular activities to improve their career prospects through networking opportunities, personal-brand training, and voluntary internships.