Prompted by this article in the Financial Times, how do you think the MBA and business schools generally will evolve? For example, will Masters in management or specialist Masters become more popular? Will online and blended postgraduate courses further increase? What else seems possible?

www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7afee3a2-56a6-11e3-ab12-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2piwV3RxC

I found it a thought provoking article.

I'm cynical about this. People have been talking about the "fading lustre" of the MBA for a long time - this is becoming a case of "the MBA is dead; long live the MBA!" My take on it is that these discussions that on the MBA's demise are in themselves a marketing outlet for the degree (this piece's author is, in fact, from Henley Business School.)

MBAs won't evolve until the market forces them to. The ranked programs still show great ROI - what incentives do they have to change them? The changes we've seen in MBAs over the last few years (more focus on CSR, sustainability, etc.) are just tweaks, and are far from a sea change.

Maybe the lower-ranked and unranked programs will change to cater to more specific demands (Babson's focus on entrepreneurship is a great example of how this can be successful.)

My hits on the questions you posed:

I see the emergence of Masters in Management programs principally as a way for the business schools to diversify their offerings - to appeal to the large group of younger people who want to pay money for a business degree but can't get into an MBA program because of lack of work experience.

MOOCs are simply another way to draw more people into the business school fold: they're targeting those who can't afford a full-time MBA program (either in money or in time.) Believe me, even if b-schools aren't monetizing these yet, they will be.