Business

Here are the 12 best online MBA courses – and salary expectations

Staff Writer

 ·27 Mar 2021

The Financial Times has published its online MBA ranking for 2021, with Warwick Business School in the UK topping the FT’s global ranking of the best online MBAs, following surging demand around the world for business education courses offered remotely.

The FT said that applications for online MBAs spiked 43.5% in 2020, citing a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, while noting that it was significantly ahead of traditional MBA courses which saw applications increase by 11.6% over the same period.

“The economic disruption of coronavirus has caused many people to remain in or return to education, while lockdowns have accelerated the use of online platforms for study, blurring the distinction between long-established distance learning courses and in-person courses forced temporarily to shift to teaching remotely,” the FT said.

“Online MBAs tend to be cheaper and run over longer periods, allowing students to continue working while studying, typically with asynchronous courses they can take at times convenient to them, combined with some live sessions online and periodic in-person meetings.”

They are often taken by older students who already have significant work experience.

“For us there are two different MBA markets,” said Markus Perkmann, academic director of MBA programmes at Imperial College Business School.

“GMBA students have more than 10 years of professional experience and many have a full-on full-time job,” he said. “The full-time MBA candidates are earlier in their career [and] chose to study as a life experience, often in their late twenties.”

According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the number of colleges offering at least one online MBA programme has climbed dramatically since the  2014-15 academic year, from 22% to 39% in the 2019-20 academic year.

The cost for a top online MBA varies, with the likes of Warwick amounting to £34,150 (R700,000), and Imperial college £41,350 (R850,000), while Durham charges £12,000.00 per year, and the University of Florida: Warrington costing $59,807 (R892,000) over two years.

The FT online MBA ranking, based on responses from business schools and their alumni, is weighted for factors including total remuneration and salary increases of students after graduation.

FT Online MBA ranking 2021 — top 12

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