New Online MBA

PROGRAM GOES LIVE IN FALL 2020

Boston University and Questrom will team up with the global online education platform edX to offer an online MBA beginning in fall 2020.

“We’ve recognized the transformative potential of edX for some time,” says President Robert A. Brown. “With the Online MBA, we’re seizing the initiative to offer a major degree for which we believe there is global demand. Higher education must evolve in a fast-changing world. We aim to lead in this evolution.”

“Throughout our 105-year history, the school has evolved our MBA portfolio of offerings to address unique segments of business learners,” says Susan Fournier, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean. “The Online MBA is the next step.”

The program is being designed from the ground up and will be tailored for global online learners. Fournier says the Online MBA will have the same learning goals—and grant the same credential—as Questrom’s on-campus full- and part-time offerings, but that the program is purposely different in key ways.

“It addresses a market segment of mid-career advancers, including students from areas where access to campus is unlikely,” she says. “It is truly interdisciplinary and focuses on capabilities like innovation and measuring and managing risk, not siloed courses such as marketing or finance. The Online MBA presents a strong point of view on what people need to learn to manage businesses in the 21st century. It has a set curriculum and does not offer the opportunity to go deep in chosen areas of specialization.”

Questrom will continue to invest in its on-campus MBA program, which has 300 full-time and approximately 650 part-time and executive MBA students.

“Our strategy is twofold,” says Fournier, “to launch an innovative online MBA and to strengthen the value proposition of our on-campus MBA. We are bolstering our investments in career services, professional development, vibrant person-to-person experiences, community, and hands-on learning with Boston business partners.

“By developing cutting-edge online content and the digital capabilities to deliver that content worldwide and at scale, Questrom is opening the door for innovative lifelong learning programs for our alumni and the community at large.”

Tuition for the Online MBA will be $24,000, and applications are now being accepted.