Simmons College is moving four of its graduate degree programs online, including the nation’s only M-B-A designed specifically for women.
The women’s college is eliminating in-person teaching for its MBA students.
Like many women’s colleges, Simmons is facing stiff headwinds: low revenue and dropping enrollment. President Helen Drinan says enrollment in the College’s business program is down—nearly 40 percent over the past two years.
“It was a constant downward trend. Constant,” says Drinan.
Drinan says that’s partly because businesswomen have busy schedules… so to accommodate that and to bring in more students… it will go online… and be marketed to both men and women. As one of the program’s earliest graduates, Drinan doesn’t think anything will be lost.
“Our curriculum is the only business curriculum in the country that has been designed with women in mind… providing women protagonists in cases that are study so that we’re not only looking at the experience through the eyes of a man but also through the eyes of woman.”
Max Woolf, a senior analyst with the higher ed research firm Eduventures agrees. He says online learning will allow Simmons to further distinguish itself in a very competitive market.
“I think this is really the savior that will allow them to keep that program around,” says Woolf.
Simmons will also move three other graduate programs online: health care, communications and applied behavior analysis. The College’s all-women undergraduate programs will still be based in traditional classrooms.
