Business schools are shutting down MBA programs

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandqu ... 804db36855

This is catastrophic.

[ProfessorDetective]

I assume not enough people are taking these... hold on... *google* 'Master of Business Administration' programs, for them to be a viable part of the curriculum?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I assume not enough people are taking these... hold on... *google* 'Master of Business Administration' programs, for them to be a viable part of the curriculum?

Idunno, the article says they're loss leaders so that they can get high ranks. Business degrees are funny.

[ProfessorDetective]

My assumption is the same as with most of the artistic and scientific degrees. You don't really need higher education to know this stuff anymore. The internet has made knowledge a lot easier and cheaper to obtain. The only reason to seek college out anymore is if you NEED that degree as a qualification. It's one of the reasons why we seem to be running out of engineers and physicians.

[Madner Kami]

Education does more than just telling you facts. It also tells you how to obtain and work with these facts. For example, I can easily read how a combustion engine works, but that doesn't mean I can repair one. The reason that less and less people become physicians and engineers is simply, that especially the former is a field of work that demands a lot from the applicant but pays badly, almost universally in the western world for some undiscernible reason.
As for why we "run out of engineers", that is hardly because it's only because you need the degree. If that were the case, then how do you explain that, in Germany for example, we have 5 open positions as an engineer in the fields or architecture, building-techniques and survey for every job-seeking engineer in the field? How do we have 3.9 open positions for engineers in the field of vehicle construction and mechatronik, for every job-seeking ingineer? No, your assessment does not add up. If you could just take anyone who can read Wikipedia, the companies would. They don't. Thus the reason for not having enough engineers is to be found elsewhere. The reasons for not having enough engineers are of a socio-political nature. Lack of teaching positions, lack of motivation to pick up the field in the first place (other degrees are that much easier to get), the simple fact that less and less men go for a higher education and so on.

[ProfessorDetective]

Education does more than just telling you facts. It also tells you how to obtain and work with these facts. For example, I can easily read how a combustion engine works, but that doesn't mean I can repair one. The reason that less and less people become physicians and engineers is simply, that especially the former is a field of work that demands a lot from the applicant but pays badly, almost universally in the western world for some undiscernible reason.
As for why we "run out of engineers", that is hardly because it's only because you need the degree. If that were the case, then how do you explain that, in Germany for example, we have 5 open positions as an engineer in the fields or architecture, building-techniques and survey for every job-seeking engineer in the field? How do we have 3.9 open positions for engineers in the field of vehicle construction and mechatronik, for every job-seeking ingineer? No, your assessment does not add up. If you could just take anyone who can read Wikipedia, the companies would. They don't. Thus the reason for not having enough engineers is to be found elsewhere. The reasons for not having enough engineers are of a socio-political nature. Lack of teaching positions, lack of motivation to pick up the field in the first place (other degrees are that much easier to get), the simple fact that less and less men go for a higher education and so on.

That's Germany. The problem here, in The US, is that higher education has become so prohibitively expensive that wanting to earn a degree without a scholarship or an inheritance can very well bankrupt you. And when I mention The Internet making knowledge more attainable, I should have mentioned SKILLS becoming just as attainable by those means.

A quickly growing share of people in the creative industries are self-taught via the vast resources of The Internet, now, and most of the veterans in those fields who went to school are telling the novices to not bother and just teach themselves. Sadly, you can't do that in medical or scientific fields due to degrees being a legal necessity for licenses and the like. Sure, these are fields where you want to be 100% sure your new hire isn't a complete charlatan, but it still adds a barrier to entry that most folks who want to be doctors or engineers simply can't overcome.

In the USA, it's often not a lack of motivation that leaves folks unable to reach their aspirations, but a genuine lack of means and/or opportunity. This ain't 'The Land of Opportunity' no more, it's 'The Land of Tolls'. The only way to a good life is money, and almost no one has enough to keep from starving.

[Zoinksberg]

Makes sense. An MBA is what someone with a Bachelors degree gets when they have reached the top of their current career path and want to get in to a position that requires a Masters degree. They are shutting down the full-time program to focus on the part-time one, which given most people who are pursuing this degree have jobs makes perfect sense.

This is nothing new really, Dilbert has been considering getting his MBA part-time since the 90's.

[Worffan101]

Good. MBAs in general are just wasted time; you get better and less snooty managers if they come up from the ranks of the specialists so they know WTF they're talking about.

[clearspira]

Education does more than just telling you facts. It also tells you how to obtain and work with these facts. For example, I can easily read how a combustion engine works, but that doesn't mean I can repair one.

Excellent point. Instant experts are the number one problem with the internet age - people who read a wiki, or watch a Youtuber, or see some prick sprouting rubbish about vaccines or climate change and think they know just as much as the experts do.

They don't.

[Riedquat]

Good. MBAs in general are just wasted time; you get better and less snooty managers if they come up from the ranks of the specialists so they know WTF they're talking about.

Tricky. Not every specialist makes a good manager and whilst a good manager needs some technical knowledge they don't need to be any sort of specialist or expert.

I'm also not keen on the idea that it's "coming up from the ranks", with the implication that it's a higher role. In most businesses it is, which is a huge mistake. The wheels need to be greased to keep on turning properly, that doesn't make the grease more important than the wheels though. And they wonder why they have p1ssed off staff and a high turnover rate.