The gap between the two biggest Australian MBA programs for domestic students has narrowed with less than 100 enrolments separating the top providers.
New annual figures compiled by the Commonwealth Department of Education provided a snapshot of enrolment trends in Australian institutions in 2019 before the immense disruption caused by COVID-19 in 2020.
The data shows the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) maintained its place as the top provider of MBAs in Australia with 1580 domestic enrolments in 2019.
The University Of New South Wales placed a narrow second with 1495 domestic student enrolments.
The results are significantly closer than 2018 when 690 enrolments separated the two institutions and a far cry from the 2017 figures when the gap was 1108.
While the UNSW increased domestic enrolments by 65 places in 2019, enrolments at AIB fell 25 percent since reporting 2120 enrolments in 2018.
Deakin University rounded out to Top 3 for domestic enrolments in Australian MBA programs with 761 students.
Domestic enrolments fell at all but two of the top 10 providers with only the University of New South Wales and University of Melbourne reporting year on year increases from 2018 to 2019.
The University of Queensland broke into the Top 10 domestic MBA providers with 344 enrolments in 2019.
UQ replaced Curtin University in tenth position with the Western Australian university recording 301 domestic student enrolments in 2019.
