The University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business has shuttered its full-time MBA program
Even as many U.S. business schools are celebrating a rebound in MBA applications, the University of Houston’s C. T. Bauer College of Business is taking a different path — pausing enrollment for its full-time MBA program and betting on the growth of its Professional MBA, Online, and Executive MBA formats.
Leiser O. Silva, associate dean of graduate and professional programs, says the move, announced internally this spring, is a strategic realignment aimed at better serving students and concentrating limited resources. While Bauer is not technically shutting down its full-time MBA, Silva says, the school is pausing enrollment indefinitely, reflecting both a shift in market demand and an internal reallocation of resources.
“Operating multiple MBA modalities requires careful resource allocation,” Silva tells Poets&Quants. “Full-time MBA programs, in particular, demand substantial resources for student services, career development, and faculty appointments.”
Houston Bauer’s Leiser Silva: College’s success hinges not on having a FTMBA but “how effectively we transform our students’ lives and the positive impact they subsequently have on our communities”
Silva says Bauer leadership had been discussing the possibility of a pause for the full-time program for about seven years, balancing market realities, internal costs, and feedback from alumni. “During that time we reflected on many factors,” he says, “but also we got feedback from alumni that did the Professional MBA who shared with us their concerns on having a lower-ranked program as the FTMBA in a way may create confusion about the quality of their degree.”
“To be honest with you, we look at rankings and pay attention to them, but we are not guided by them,” Silva says. “The main concern and purpose of our degrees is to serve our students. We certainly believe that by concentrating on student success, the rankings will eventually reflect that achievement.”
Silva says that in conversations with deans and associate deans from peer institutions, there is broad agreement that maintaining a full-time MBA is financially challenging and increasingly difficult to justify without robust applicant demand.
At Bauer, that demand has been dwindling. In contrast to an overall uptick in MBA applications across the U.S. according to recently released U.S. News data, applications to Bauer’s full-time MBA program have been on the wane. Silva — who has been with the B-school since 2002 and who currently teaches the core Management of Information Systems courses to Full-Time MBA, Professional MBA and Executive MBA students — cites two key reasons: students questioning the value of leaving the workforce for two years, and the rising cost of full-time programs relative to part-time and online options.
“While overall MBA applications have increased, this growth is primarily concentrated in online MBA programs, which offer greater flexibility and affordability,” Silva says. “Our decision aligns with shifting market interest.”
Bauer’s Professional MBA is, and will remain, the school’s flagship, Silva says. With around 200 active students, compared to just 19 full-time MBA students in the most recent cohort (and only 9 the year prior), the part-time option has long outpaced the traditional model in scale and demand.
The Bauer Professional MBA’s “quality is reflected in the rankings — we recently placed in the top 25 for public schools and tied for 38th among all schools overall in the latest U.S. News rankings,” Silva notes, stressing that the program offers the same degree, faculty, student services, and curriculum as its full-time counterpart.
The only difference, he adds, is the delivery schedule: “Core courses for the full-time MBA were offered during daytime hours, while those for the Professional MBA are offered in the evenings.”
Bauer’s Online MBA, launched in 2019, will also continue to grow as student demand for flexible, remote-friendly options expands, Silva says.
“We believe that by concentrating our resources on the Professional, Executive, and Online MBA modalities, we can provide better service to all our students,” he says, reiterating that the FTMBA was experiencing low demand. “As I said, it was a struggle to recruit talented students.”
Bauer’s move to at least temporarily shutter its full-time MBA is not without precedent. In the past dozen or so years, several U.S. business schools have phased out their full-time MBA programs, repositioning their flagship offerings in high-profile moves to meet changing student demand:
The beneficiaries of these shifts: part-time, online, and specialized programs, which have increasingly found favor from students seeking flexible, affordable alternatives.
Silva agrees with the incoming dean’s ambitions — and argues that a full-time MBA isn’t essential to that mission.
“Success isn’t determined solely by whether we offer a Full-Time MBA program — that would be far too narrow a perspective,” Silva says. “Rather, our College’s success hinges on how effectively we transform our students’ lives and the positive impact they subsequently have on our communities.
“By focusing primarily on this mission, I’m confident that improved rankings and recognition will naturally follow. Student success remains at the core of our focus and represents the heart of our institution.”
