The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of New South Wales has retained its title as the largest provider of MBA programs to domestic students with new data from 2022 showing a continued increase in demand for online MBA programs.
Enrolment data from the Australian Government’s Department of Education shows there was more than 29,000 students enrolled in Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in 2022, a decline of about 1.7% on the previous year.
The lower number of enrolments reflects a global trend in the wake of COVID when demand for MBAs soared as young executives looked to shore up their career prospects by starting an MBA.
A major trend to emerge from the 2022 data is the continued popularity of online MBA programs with online programs enrolments growing 7.8% while in-class programs enrolments shrank by 6%.
The number of in-class MBA students has now fallen nearly 50% from pre-COVID levels with about 5,700 less international students studying an MBA on-campus in 2022 (7,739 students), compared to 2020 (13,450 students).
Many of this international students are now studying externally, resulting in a 191% increase in the number of external international students to 6,011.
AGSM @ UNSW just pipped the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) as the largest provider of MBA programs for domestic students in 2022, with the University of Melbourne (954 students), RMIT University (764 enrolments) and Deakin University (647 enrolments), rounding out the top five.
AGSM's suite of MBA programs include the highly ranked Executive MBA and the multi-specialisaty online MBAx programs
Professor Nick Wailes, Dean of Lifelong Learning and Director of AGSM said the MBA as a degree continued to grow in popularity with both AGSM's in-class and online offerings experiencing strong demand.
"The MBA is still a very valuable tool to accelerate career progression or a career change and we have a variety of options for students to make that happen," he said.
"Our full-time, face-to-face program is still experiencing strong demand and is stronger than it has been for years. There is also people who want flexibility in learning."
"We have really tried to build an omni channel offering in the MBA space and then it is up to the individual about how they want to study, it is not about forcing people into ne mode or another."
Professor Wailes said the motivation for students wanting to do an MBA fell into three broad categories.
"Firstly, about a third of students still want to use the MBA to accelerate their career and go faster in their current organisation. The second reason is that people want a good quality qualification to help them pivot or transfer from their current role into a new organisation or a new sector," he said.
"The third reason, and this is growing quite a lot, is people using an MBA to start their own business. These people see opportunities in emerging spaces like sustainability and AI and want the skills to execute as a founder."
"The underlying driver is that the world is always changing you can't sit by and not invest in yourself. If you are motivated to do bigger and better things, doing your day job is probably not going to get you where you want to go."
