Miami U. Shutters Its Accelerated MBA Program

Posted by: Louis Lavelle on September 13, 2011

After just six years of operation, one of the most highly regarded accelerated MBA programs in the U.S. is shutting its doors, the victim of state budget cuts.

The suspension of the 14-month program at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Ohio is effective after the current class of 30 students graduates in the summer of 2012, the school said in a press release today.

“The challenging economic climate and reductions in state support for higher education have forced every school and department, including the Farmer School, to make difficult decisions,” Bobby Gempesaw, Miami’s provost, said in the statement. In the current fiscal year, state funding for Miami was cut by 17 percent.

When The Wall Street Journal last published a ranking of accelerated MBA programs in 2009, the Farmer program was ninth overall and third among U.S. programs.

The Farmer accelerated program is the latest casualty of an economy that’s hitting B-schools with a double whammy. Full-time programs, like Farmer’s, have been getting far fewer applications, as many employed B-school hopefuls opt to forgo school and the possibility of graduating into a double-dip recession. A new report out today says that 57 percent of one-year programs reported a decline in applications, compared to 46 percent for part-time programs, which tend to flourish when the economy sours.

At the same time, public institutions, like Miami, are suffering from state budget cuts that are forcing many to rethink their finances. At the undergraduate level, many are aggressively recruiting out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition than in-state students.