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“I think executive education has become confusing to the customer, both to corporations and to individuals,” says Tami Fassinger, associate dean for executive programs at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. In part, she suggests, there’s just general confusion among potential students about the differences between degree and non-degree executive education programs.
In some cases, Fassinger says, time to the EMBA was shortened, and the EMBA degree did not require the same academic rigors as “their counterparts down the hall.” That confused potential customers, she believes. Further confusion stems from how programs are administered: whereas some schools manage executive degree programs and executive education separately, others keep them under the same roof.
Fassinger says the rise of specialized, short-term executive education, offerings that might take the form of intensive five- or six-week non-degree programs or courses of just a few days’ length, have also muddied the waters. Potential students, she says, aren’t always sure about what kind of program they want or need, or whether they should pursue a degree, a certificate of completion, or simply a course here and there.
Michael Desiderio, executive director of the Executive MBA Council, also sees a need for greater clarity about executive education. Speaking to the executive MBA degree programs that his organization represents, Desiderio says, “We want to make sure that people don’t confuse us with other offerings in the marketplace.” To that end, his association recently completed a meeting devoted to program branding.
The current economic turmoil affects executive education as much as it does the rest of graduate management education. Yet “despite all the craziness, there’s still as lot of energy in the executive education space,” Desiderio says. For example, he says, EMBA Council’s members reported that applications for 2008 were up about 33 percent compared with Council data for 2005.
A telling trend in degree programs is how they are financed. “If you were to go back 10 or 15 years, students who attended [executive MBA] programs were fully funded by corporations,” he says. Today, it’s a dramatically different story. Data from EMBA’s 2008 program survey show that 32 percent of today’s students are paying their own way, and an additional 36 percent share the cost with their companies. Another perspective on those data is that students are willing to dip into their own pockets to invest in their futures.
Desiderio also notes that executive MBA programs are more open to providing career services. That traditionally was taboo: Corporations paying for executive education didn’t want their employees to overtly look for other jobs. As Desiderio observes, however, career services offers much more than just job placement, including help managing one’s career with one’s current organization, which certainly benefits both employee and employer.
As providers of executive education continue to clarify just what it is they offer, Tami Fassinger believes that one area, specialized degree programs for working professionals, “is going to blossom.” Next year, for example, the first class will graduate in Vanderbilt’s new program for health professionals with five or more years of experience, which leads to a master’s degree in management. Fassinger describes the degree as “business fundamentals wrapped around professional execution,” and says it complements the university’s well-established MBA in health care.
To ensure that students find the kind of executive education that best suits them, Vanderbilt offers a potpourri of options that range from full MBA degree programs to specialized classes offered a la carte. Students can bundle classes, if they like, to customize a certificate program.
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