UNC's Online MBA

The WSJ recently chronicled the launch of UNC's online MBA - the first full-time all online MBA from a top 20 school.

Some things that stood out from the article:

• UNC officials say that admissions standards for the new program are just as high as for an on-campus M.B.A.
• On paper, the online M.B.A. will be indistinct from the brick-and-mortar degree earned by students
• 2tor invested more than $10 million in the program. The start-up will receive a share of the tuition UNC receives from students for the 10-year life of the UNC contract.

So with a more stringent admissions policy, the "signalling" of this program will be tested in the recruiting of its graduates. It's hard to believe the alumni network will adjust to interacting with online-only students, it seems like the online community will create its own network and build from there. I wonder what the percentage royalty 2tor got for building the program?

TheLadders Guarantee

Recently, TheLadders.com made waves with a new promotion: if you sign up for their expensive premium job searching service, and you don't find a job, they will refund you your money. We did something similar last year, offering a full refund if someone did not have a job after six months of taking the exam.

Of course, there are strings attached to the Ladders deal (you have to go through the program and complete all the tasks). We at the CBL think this is great and should be extended to career services offices all over the US.

Imagine if traditional college tuition was broken down into academic training and professional training.

Academic training is typical college: classes, dorms, labs, etc...

Professional training is career services: resume review, career advice, interview tips, etc...

Let's say the split is probably 95% academic, 5% career. So for a typical $30,000 a year program, you would allocate $1,500 allocated to career services. At the end of four years, if a student has gone to all the training seminars and advisory groups, and are not employed three months after graduation, they get a check for $6,000.

Seems like a good, market based solution to me.