Another Business School Announces a 1-Year MBA Program

Another business school will launch a one-year master of business administration (MBA) program as student demand for accelerated programs is on the rise.

The Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona announced a new, 10-month MBA program to launch in summer 2025. That program reflects increased interest in one-year programs among students, according to a press release from the school.

“The launch of our one-year MBA program marks an exciting evolution at the Eller College,” Eller College of Management Dean Karthik Kannan said in the release.

Students in the Tuscon-based program will pay an in-state tuition of $32,620 or an out-of-state tuition of less than $55,000. Both come in below the average total cost of an MBA program.

The curriculum focuses on high-demand fields, including business analytics and management information systems.

The accelerated format, and its focus on fast-growing fields, is part of a growing trend in business education as working professionals seek flexible formats to advance their careers.

“In response to growing demand for flexible business education, we’ve created an accelerated program that meets the needs of ambitious professionals who want to fast-track their careers,” Kannan said.

One-year MBAs are a popular option for prospective MBA students: October research from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) showed widespread application growth at one-year MBA programs in the United States.

Sixty-four percent of one-year, full-time MBA programs reported growth in 2024, according to the GMAC’s regional profile of the United States. Online MBA programs also reported application growth at the same pace.

Full-time, two-year MBA programs also reported robust 2024 growth at 72%.

In fact, graduate business applications were up across the board amid economic uncertainty and business school innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). But that rebound follows declines: One-year MBA programs overtook two-year MBAs in the GMAC’s 2023 Prospective Students Survey.

Jayanthi Sunder, vice dean for programs and strategic initiatives at the Eller College, said in an emailed statement that several years of declining interest in two-year MBA programs led the college to offer a format that allows students to quickly get back into the workforce and apply their knowledge.

“When we dug into the reasons, one of the big concerns that prospective students had was staying out of the workforce for two years and the opportunity cost in terms of salary and career progression that came with it, especially when there are other part-time MBA options that are available,” Sunder said.

“However, some students still value the immersive experience of a full-time program, and the one-year MBA is designed to meet that need in half the time.

“We designed the program to ensure that the students get an excellent MBA education and experience in one year while maintaining a two-year dual degree pathway for students who want to stay for the second year and get another specialized master’s degree in one of our business disciplines in addition to an Eller MBA.”

Sunder said Eller expects strong interest “from professionals with 2-5 years of work experience and also recent graduates from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) degrees who want to build their understanding of business before they start their careers so that they don’t have to come back for an MBA down the road.”

The rise in applications at accelerated and online programs points to interest among working professionals who don’t want to spend significant amounts of time away from the workforce as in a traditional MBA program.

London Business School, one of the world’s most influential business schools, also plans to launch a one-year MBA program in 2025 — although that program is geared for recent graduates of accredited master’s in management (MiM) programs or equivalent.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business recently launched a three-semester, full-time MBA aimed at professionals looking for career advancement. That program is offered in both a 12-month format and a 16-month format with a summer internship.

“This full-time accelerated MBA allows students to work through a world-class curriculum and receive personalized leadership coaching while learning how to lead businesses in a global economy — in only three semesters,” Kate Barraclough, Tepper’s associate dean of master’s programs, said in a 2023 press release.

A growing number of business schools have launched MBA programs specifically geared toward working professionals, including accelerated, flexible, and entirely online formats.

The growth of the one-year MBA isn’t a universal trend at top business schools. The University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business announced in 2023 that it would sunset its one-year MBA program to refocus on its traditional two-year program.

Mendoza Dean Martijn Cremers said in a release at the time that while the one-year MBA “historically has attracted talented and dedicated students and remains financially viable, the decision to discontinue the program reflects the college’s focus on the two-year MBA as our priority and was informed by the ongoing strategic review aimed at optimizing and elevating Mendoza’s graduate program portfolio.”