COVID-19 Impact On Offline MBA: Are Colleges Under Pressure To Prove Relevance?

B-schools in India confronted the Covid 19 pandemic by quickly adopting technology-based solutions for teaching and learning. As the classes had to go on in spite of the lockdowns, the real challenge was to not compromise on the value of MBA degrees. 

In MBAs, live interactions, discussions on business case studies, and field immersion form a major aspect of the teaching-learning process. Without the physical proximity of the classroom, the effectiveness of such methods was put under the scanner. It was a cause of concern for the industry as well, as major companies had hitherto depended heavily on B-schools to hire top talents in the country.

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Thus, B-schools across the country had to inevitably face a burning question - how to navigate the challenge of maintaining value in regular MBAs in virtual classrooms, while simultaneously dealing with a global pandemic? 

Changing Delivery Models in B-school Curriculum

With the emergence of virtual classrooms, the old method of lecturing students from the podium proved redundant in most B-schools. Professors realized that much of the curriculum is already available online and students can easily go and study them on their own. As a result, a change in the delivery model was required to make online classes effective. 

Jochen Wirtz, Vice Dean and Professor of Marketing at the National University of Singapore believes that the faculty should now play the role of a guide and assist the students in the learning process. “Covid was a healthy shake-up for teaching,” the veteran professor told the Financial Times. 

Professor Wirtz feels that online teaching has benefitted students a lot. While they study the course material on their own time, the contact time in the classroom can be used for discussions and interactive sessions. In fact, this was the model that B-schools across the world adopted to meet the challenges in classroom teaching in a Covid affected world.

Bright Times Ahead for Indian B-schools?

The concept of online education is not new to top Indian B-schools. Much like elsewhere in the world, Indian B-schools have been experimenting with online teaching and learning for the last 20 years. Even before the pandemic, top B-schools in India have implemented online learning models in certificate and executive-level courses.

About a decade and a half ago, Professor Ranjan Das of IIM Calcutta partnered with online deliveries services like NIIT and Hughes to create the flagship Long Distance Education model. However, due to the lack of a good internet connection then, students had to go to a delivery center to attend the classes. But in spite of the difficulties associated with bandwidth, more than 3000 students were attending various certification courses online. 

Similarly, Professor Rishikesha T. Krishna, the Director of IIM-Bangalore, talked about how past experiences with online teaching helped them to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic. “When the pandemic first hit us, like everyone else, we had to move our classes online. It was relatively easier for us to do this because we already had significant experience in this area,” he said.

Commenting on the hiring trends in B-schools after Covid 19, Professor Krishna said, “As long as the industry and the economy are growing fast, the prospects for business education also remain right because essentially its economic growth, which drives many management jobs.” It explains why after a year of dip in placements, 2022 finally saw massive hiring by top companies across all top B-schools in India. 

The missing element in online MBA

Professor Ambi Parameswaran, currently adjunct faculty at SPJIMR Mumbai, echoed similar concerns. “Online teaching had its benefits,” he said, “now I could invite guest speakers to interact with the students without having to handle all the logistics.” He admitted that this is something he couldn’t have dreamt of a year ago. 

“I thought students would be highly disappointed but to my pleasant surprise, they felt the classes were better than expected,” Prof Parameswaran added. Remember that this was in May 2020 when the common belief was that the pandemic would be over in a few months. 

Soon, however, the limitations of online teaching became apparent to both students and the faculty, and there was a mutual feeling that something was amiss. Faculties across B-schools in India realized that they need to take a different approach to the delivery model of teaching, otherwise the prophecy that MBA degrees impart no practical knowledge will come true. 

New players in the game

Along with the challenges that came with the closing of classrooms, B-schools also faced competition from alternative educators who questioned the practical relevance of academic research in businesses. In India, brands like Upgrad ran campaigns projecting that an online MBA is more beneficial than a regular one. 

Such campaigns created immense pressure on the academic community in B-schools and nudged them further to prove the continued relevance of their teaching models. Besides, with B-schools conducting classes online, it became hard to distinguish regular degrees from the online ones. Facing this challenge was clearly not easy.

Caryn Beck-Dudley, president and chief executive of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a professional accreditation body for B-schools, acknowledged the challenges facing B-school faculty across the world. “It’s hugely tough for faculty right now,” she said in an interview. 

Professor Greg Whitwell, Dean at the University of Sydney Business School, feels that there will be an intense questioning of the B-school curriculum and whether they will exist in the present form. He, however, feels that B-schools have always been remarkably adaptive. “B-schools have reinvented programs, pioneered pedagogies, invested in enabling technologies, built value-creating collaborations, and developed new markets,” he said.

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Reinventing the B-school curriculum

Under the circumstances that Covid induced, B-schools not only had to change the delivery model but also the entire teaching model involving the pedagogy and evaluation. Most B-schools had to invest in online proctoring and examination software like Moodle and Mercl-Mettl to conduct exams. 

Among the critical changes, B-schools in India witnessed a fall in the number of live case studies in the courses. Besides, with travel restrictions that came as a consequence of the pandemic, foreign exchange programs also took a backseat, despite being conducted in a virtual model. Thus, despite paying the full fee, students missed out on all the on-campus fun. 

Prof. Dr. Barbara Majoor, Vice-Rector at Magnificus Nyenrode Business University says, “the challenge for us (and everyone) as a business school is to respond quickly and flexibly to the changing environment and needs of our students.” Dr. Majoor feels that the emphasis of business degrees should be on inculcating a spirit of lifelong learning which will help future business leaders to meet and adapt to any challenge in the field. 

Conclusion

After almost two years of living through the pandemic, it is quite clear now that B-school degrees are far from being irrelevant. The demand for graduates from top B-schools has not only picked up pace after the pandemic but in some cases, it has also exceeded the pre-pandemic levels by several notches. 

Abhishek Aggarwal, the Executive Director of Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA) sums up the trend perfectly; he says, “ The Covid-19 batch would definitely remember the pandemic more than perhaps what others would remember it for.” “Nonetheless,” he adds, “the big breather is that business education remains as important as it was before the pandemic.”

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