Shai Reshef, founder of the
University of the People,
giving a 2014 Ted Talk on
low-cost education.
IN AUGUST, New York University’s School of Medicine made a startling
announcement—it would offer full-tuition scholarships to all current
and future students in its three-year medical program. The scholarships,
which cover the school’s yearly tuition of US$55,018, will be
funded with support from more than 2,500 donors.
Administrators believe that the comprehensive scholarship program
will help the school address two prevalent challenges in medicine:
rising student loan debt and doctor shortages. They hope the
scholarships will attract students who might otherwise not apply to
med school for fear of accruing massive debt; doctors in the U.S. graduate
with a median $202,000 in loans, according to the Association
of American Medical Colleges. With no loans to pay, future NYU med
school graduates might enter lower-paying fields such as primary care,
pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology, where numbers of doctors
have been dropping.
Unlike doctors, MBAs are not in short
supply. But could business schools attract
more diverse and passionate student
cohorts to their full-time MBA programs
via full-tuition scholarship models?
Two schools—the W.P. Carey School
of Business at Arizona State University
in Tempe and the business school at the
University of the People (UoPeople), a
global online higher education institution—
already have adopted similar
models for their MBAs. Here is a look at
how these programs have fared over the
past two years.
A BOON TO DIVERSITY
UoPeople has adopted a free-tuition
model for all of its programs—including
its MBA, launched in 2016. Students are
accepted into the MBA program only after
they successfully pass an introductory
business course, explains Shai Reshef,
UoPeople’s president and founder.
“UoPeople is especially proud of its
incredibly diverse student population,
from over 200 countries and territories,”
says Reshef. “These are students who
would never in a million years have been
able to study at a traditional university.”
In 2016, the Carey School began
offering full-tuition scholarships to all
students enrolled in its full-time MBA
program. Two years in, the school has
achieved its goal of “opening the doors
to a high-quality graduate education for
many who otherwise could not afford it,”
says dean Amy Hillman.
The Carey School’s admissions
standards have not changed, but now,
as admissions staff members evaluate
candidates, they pay more attention to
all forms of diversity, including gender,
ethnicity, nationality, industry expertise,
and career aspirations. As a result,
the percentage of women in the class
has increased to more than 40 percent.
Among U.S. enrollments, the number of
Hispanic students has nearly quadrupled,
and Native American student
representation is on the rise.
“More than half of the students in the
class have undergraduate majors outside
of technical areas and business. The
number of countries represented went
from an average of eight to ten annually
to more than 20. We’ve received more
than 2,500 applications over the past
three admissions cycles, with applicants
coming from an average of 51 countries
per year,” says Hillman. “We’ve made
major inroads toward having a more
diverse and inclusive class.”
FUNDING THE MODEL
UoPeople and ASU use different
approaches to sustain their tuition
models. UoPeople relies heavily on
open-source technologies, open educational
resources, peer-to-peer learning,
and a corps of volunteer instructors and
staff. Over the years, more than 7,000
professionals have volunteered to teach
and develop courses, advise students,
and serve in leadership positions such
as president, provost, and dean.
Although tuition is free, non-MBA
students are required to pay a $100
assessment fee at the end of each
course; MBA students pay $200 per
course. However, the university offers
a range of scholarships to students unable
to pay these fees.
At ASU, MBA students’ tuition is
covered largely by philanthropic support.
While finding donors to sponsor
graduate scholarship programs has been
challenging in the past, the full-scholarship
model and mission has allowed
fundraising staff to make a more persuasive
appeal to donors. “With a proof
point of what those dollars can do, it has
become much easier,” Hillman says.
With every graduating class, the Carey
School’s pool of donors increases. All 119
members of the first cohort to receive
full scholarships completed the program,
graduating earlier this year. Together,
these students pledged the largest class
philanthropic gift in the business school’s
history, with 85 percent contributing.
Hillman attributes that high participation
rate to the fact that students
know that their tuition is donor-supported.
“We want to make sure that
students know where that money came
from,” she says. By doing so, the school
adopts a “pay-it-forward” culture among
its MBA students. Hillman emphasizes
that it’s critical for schools to communicate
that message clearly, from the day
students are first accepted, if they want
to sustain a comprehensive full-scholarship
model over time.
THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST
These tuition models are not without
their challenges. Both schools must not
only attract enough financial and volunteer
support to keep these programs
going, but also find ways to reach and
recruit the best students. Surprisingly,
says Hillman, offering full scholarships
across the board has not given its
MBA program an edge in attracting top
students, who often receive full-tuition
offers from multiple schools. That’s why,
starting next fall, the Carey School will
offer exceptional students larger awards
that cover books, housing, and other
educational costs in addition to tuition.
While Hillman believes that business
schools that adopt full-scholarship
tuition models could make great strides
in increasing the diversity of their student
populations, she admits that such
an approach might not be right for all
business schools. Even so, she believes
that all business schools should clearly
communicate the range of scholarship
options they offer MBA students, as early
as possible in a prospective student’s
decision-making process.
A lack of transparency regarding
the funds available could have “implications
to accessibility and diversity,”
Hillman says. “If people don’t know
about these scholarship programs,
they’ll self-select out before even applying.
That’s harming us and the business
community in the future.