MBA joint degrees on the rise

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) is launching a new joint degree programme that links an MBA with an MS in electrical engineering. The Business school has recently introduced several joint degree programmes such as MS in Computer Science/MBA and MS in Environment and Resources/MBA.

Approximately 13% to 15% of GSB students are in joint- or dual degree programmes, compared to less than 10% four or five years ago, said Madhav Rajan, senior associate dean for academic affairs, in an interview to Poets & Quants. Rajan expects that when the joint computer science and electrical engineering programs are provided, the percentage of MBA students doing joint degrees will rise.

Yale’s School of Management (SOM) also reported a record number of MBA students taking joint degrees. About 15% of students entering the MBA track have enrolled in a joint degree programme, twice the percentage of SOM’s peer institutions.

“Combining business education with graduate study in another discipline gives them a solid foundation for addressing some of the most vexing problems facing our world,” said Anjani Jain, the Yale’s senior associate dean for the MBA program, to Yale Daily News.

By Alba Bregasi