About the MBA Market in the Corona Crisis

German MBA market thrives despite COVID-19. Business schools adapted with hybrid & online learning, seeing record applicants. Discover how programs innovated and supported students.

About the MBA market during the Corona crisis

The pandemic has a firm grip on German business schools: While most of them switched to hybrid teaching in summer 2020, different future strategies are emerging in autumn. Some business schools could disappear from the market during the Corona crisis, it was said a few months ago. But the MBA business has so far proven to be very robust, with applicant numbers as high as ever. The "Business of Branding" study by the consulting firm Carringtoncrisp gives the schools an overall good report internationally: By and large, they reacted quickly and effectively to students' questions arising from the pandemic.

Campus teaching in partial lockdown

In Germany, schools are dealing with the Corona measures differently. At Mannheim Business School, after a phase of hybrid teaching, there will be no face-to-face teaching in November 2020. The strict university regulations apply there, stating that courses may only be held if online delivery is not possible. "The full-time MBAs from the last cohort were able to complete their electives and master projects online in spring and summer," explains Marketing Director Ralf Bürkle. The new full-time students will start in January 2021.

At HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, too, no face-to-face events are taking place during the partial lockdown. "We were well prepared and had already imposed stricter requirements on ourselves with a Covid phased plan than nationwide measures provided for," explains press spokeswoman Eva Echterhoff. HHL had also already postponed the full-time MBA program, in which a high percentage of students come from countries with difficult Corona situations, to January 2021 in summer 2020. All other programs are taking place as planned.

Revolutionary innovations in online didactics at business schools?

The Frankfurt School of Finance & Management maintained operations longest in spring 2020 and now also offers face-to-face teaching in hybrid mode during the partial lockdown. Students can choose whether they want to study on campus or online under strict hygiene and distance rules. In this way, all MBA programs could start as planned in October 2020. "For the new semester, we welcomed a total of 211 new students to the MBA programs. That's eight percent more than in 2019," calculates Vera Klopprogge, Head of Corporate Communications.

Since October 2020, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management has included the new online MBA program "Global Online MBA" in its portfolio alongside its face-to-face offerings, thus venturing into the future on two tracks. At ESMT, there is an expanded online offering for part-time MBAs. To continue offering hybrid teaching, so-called co-pilots are used at the Business School in Berlin: students who act as intermediaries between the online and campus classes and are intended to ensure seamless interaction in the classroom.