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

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Then, all of a sudden, applications came rushinf in, easing her worries the program wouldn’t receive its average 80 applications for thesecond semester, said Lake, director of the Mastetr of program and director of studenrt advising at UAB. Similar scenarioz are playing out in business school programsacrossa Birmingham, as the job marketr tightens further and uncertainty continue to loom over the global Interest has risen for Birming-ham-Southern College’es master’s program because of the upheava l in the economy, said Stephen Craft, dean of business programs for the college.
Those in local businessw schools said workers and studentw are realizing the job market of thefutured – post recession is going to be more competitivee and now’s a good time to hone specificc skills with a higher education degree. UAB’z Lake chalked the delay in applicationas upto fear. “kI think it’s a lot who are starting to feel a bit of the panic thatthings won’t be so fabulouws and want to concentrate on betteringt their chances of survival,” she At , the number of undergraduate students looking into graduatde school has increased, said Larry Harper, director of graduater programs.
“There has been an increase here in students about to graduated thinking they may have to stay inschool longer,” he “What’s happening is students are seeinf they need to be more competitive. In the past, therde have been a lot of jobs for Neither Lake nor Harper said they are specificallh seeing applications from people who have been laid off but rather those who view the tight job market as an opportunityh to expandskill sets. “Whemn the job market tightens, people are more thoughtful on what they said Harper. “They’re not lured away from their studiedsby high-paying jobs.
” Birmingham-Southern’s Craft said attendance at the program’s informationapl meetings has doubled and the application pool is larger, with the qualityg of applicants remaining strong. While Craftr said business school programs canbe it’s hard to differentiates between an increase in applicationse due to the down economy or a strongere push by the school in its marketing. Whether it’sw the economy or increased marketing, the rise in applicanta is expected. According to the , in 2005-2006, 25 percentf of students awarded master’s degrees receiverd them in the fieldof business.
Between 1995-1996 and 2005-2006, the number of master’e degrees awarded rose by 46 percent, with businesz and education fields accounting for 65 percent ofthat growth. And the center projects thoser numbers will rise between 2005-2006 and 2017-2018 the number of master’s degreezs are expected to rise 28 percent overall, with a 29 percenr increase in men and a 27 percent increases in women.