Application Trends for Professional MBA Programmes-Report by GMAC

For the past five years, there has been a softening in application volumes for a category of MBA programmes that can be classified as "professional" MBA programmes. These are graduate business programmes that primarily serve working professionals-part-time, flexible, online and executive MBA programmes.

Symbolic of this trend is the fact that this year is the first time since 2009 that the majority of both part-time MBA (53%) and executive MBA (51%) programmes reported declining volumes. Even so, the bulk of flexible (51%) part-time (47%) and executive (49%) MBA programmes reported increased or stable application volumes for the incoming class compared with 2012.

The most dramatic drop in applicant volume, when comparing across the spectrum of professional MBA programmes, occurred with executive MBA programmes. More than half (51%) of executive MBA programmes received fewer applications this year than they did in 2012. In addition, fewer than a third (31%) of these programmes reported increased volumes.

Part-time MBA: These programmes in Europe fared better than their US counterparts in application volumes for 2013. A majority of European part-time MBA programmes(61%) report increasing or stable application volumes compared with 2012. In the United States, 42 % of part-time MBA programmes reported increased or steady application volume in 2013 compared with 60 % of programmes last year.

Online MBA: These programmes in the United States experienced a balanced share of programmes that saw growth and declines in application volume in 2013, while 14 % reported the same volume as last year. More so than for other reporting groups, caution should be exercised when interpreting findings for online programmes due to limited school survey participation.