BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Kelley Direct Online MBA program at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has moved up to second in new 2020 rankings from Poets & Quants, a leading news site about business education.
Poets & Quants’ ranking of 35 online MBA programs is based on three equally weighted factors: the quality of incoming students, an assessment of the MBA experience by graduates and career outcomes of alumni. The news outlet surveyed nearly 1,600 graduates overall.
“We’re always pleased when the hard work of our faculty and staff is recognized by others,” said Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the Kelley School and the Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Management. “We often hear from our students how much they appreciate the connections they are able to build with our faculty and staff both inside and outside the classroom, especially through things such as career coaching and experiential learning. Our students know that Kelley can help them achieve their professional and personal goals.”
Kelley Direct is the original online MBA program from a top-tier business school. It consistently has been ranked at or near the top in program rankings, and it remains innovative in design and how it serves the needs of students.
“We prefer to think of the Kelley Direct Online MBA as a leading master’s in business administration program that just happens to be delivered online,” said Ramesh Venkataraman, associate dean for information and instructional technologies and chair of Kelley Direct MBA & MS Programs.
“Our strengths stem from key commitments we have made to our students,” he said. “We know that the idea of online learning can be intimidating for some learners, so we work hard to provide meaningful, lasting connections between individual students and their peers, our faculty, and dedicated staff.”
This year, Kelley Direct launched a revised curriculum, featuring an innovative set of integrated core modules. Each integrated core module allows students to gain deep knowledge in three subject areas while at the same time allowing them to see connections across the subject areas. The program also allows student to personalize their MBA degree, with 50 percent of their courses being electives, including global and domestic hands-on immersion courses.
Its curriculum structure and teaching methods allow students to begin applying new knowledge and business capabilities right away in their organizations.
“We are committed to helping students advance in their careers,” Venkataraman said. “We hear from students frequently that they can apply on Tuesday at work what they learned on Monday night in a live class session.”
As the number of online MBA programs continues to grow, the market is becoming increasingly competitive, said Nathan Allen, Poets&Quants’ special projects editor.
“This third annual ranking is a tighter, more competitive grouping than we have seen,” Allen said. “The result is a dynamically changing landscape of the top programs as we see innovation, pricing, and customization all factor in to the quality of a program.”
Earlier this year, Kelley Direct’s online MBA and MS programs both were ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report and the Financial Times ranked the MBA program second in the nation.
Poets & Quants, one of five education websites operated by C-Change Media, was founded and is led by John A. Byrne, former executive editor of Businessweek and former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. He created the first regularly published rankings of business schools.