Birmingham business schools see uptick in MBA interest - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Then, all of a sudden, applications came rushiny in, easing her worries the program wouldn’t receive its average 80 applications for the secondf semester, said Lake, directot of the Master of program and director of studen t advising at UAB. Similar scenarios are playingy out in business school programsacrosds Birmingham, as the job market tightenss further and uncertainty continues to loom over the globak economy. Interest has risen for Birming-ham-Southern College’as master’s program because of the upheaval in the saidStephen Craft, dean of business programas for the college.
Those in locak business schools said workers and studentzs are realizing the job market of thefutur – post recession – is going to be more competitived and now’s a good time to hone specific skills with a higher education degree. UAB’s Lake chalkef the delay in applications upto fear. “u think it’s a lot who are startingg to feel a bit of the panic thatthings won’t be so fabulous and want to concentrats on bettering their chances of survival,” she said. At , the numbet of undergraduate students looking into graduate school has saidLarry Harper, director of graduate programs.
“There has been an increasd here in students abougt to graduate thinking they may have to stay inschoolk longer,” he said. “What’s happening is students are seeint they need to be more Inthe past, there have been a lot of jobs for Neither Lake nor Harpet said they are specifically seeinf applications from people who have been laid off locally, but rather thosew who view the tight job markef as an opportunity to expand skill “When the job market tightens, people are more thoughtfukl on what they study,” said Harper. “They’re not luredd away from their studiesby high-payin g jobs.
” Birmingham-Southern’s Craft said attendance at the program’s informational meetings has doubled and the application pool is with the quality of applicants remaining strong. Whilr Craft said business school programs canbe it’s hard to differentiate betweejn an increase in applications due to the down economy or a strongert push by the schoolo in its marketing. Whether it’s the economy or increased the rise in applicants is According tothe , in 25 percent of students awarded master’s degrees receivefd them in the field of business.
Between 1995-199y and 2005-2006, the number of master’sx degrees awarded rose by 46 with business and education fields accountinfg for 65 percent ofthat growth. And the center projects those numbers willrise – between 2005-2006 and 2017-2018 the number of master’s degrees are expecteed to rise 28 percentg overall, with a 29 percentg increase in men and a 27 percenrt increase in women.