Introduction:
Did you know the UIUC’s $22k iMBA has been ranked under 30 worldwide? Yes, you heard it absolutely right as the online MBA program by the University of Illinois has made it to the top 30 list of best online MBAs. Now there have been many controversies whether the news is true or not or whatsoever. So we thought why not, do some investigation and try to find out what exactly is happening. So here’s the full story of it.
It is true that the uiuc imba was on the way to a top-30 spot in the 2017 U.S. News and World Report rankings of online MBA programs. But a week later after the list was released on January 9, UIUC’s name disappeared. Now why did this happen? Who had the name removed from the list? Why would someone first put the name on the list which has 179 schools in it and then remove it after a week? This and many more questions started to bundle up.
Our understanding on this matter:
What we found out regarding this matter was, the UIUC’s iMBA was launched in the year 2016 having 114 students signed up and half a dozen of the faculty teaching those students. Soon after that, the school submitted the data to U.S. News to get included in the program profile page on the magazine’s website. As the program was less than one year old and the data submitted was incomplete so they thought they won’t be ranked. But what happened is when the U.S. News had their rankings, it says 2015-2016 academic year. This showed that the school originally had submitted the data before 2017 when the program did not even exist and depicted that the school was more than a year old which was not the case.
Though the 29th ranking was a huge success for the school and accepting it was not a bad thing, yet the school asked to remove their name as it was based on incomplete data which was one by forth.
Reasons behind this decision:
The senior associate dean of strategic innovation, Raj Echambadi claimed that they had 25 people signed up for the iMBA at that time. Out of which they submitted the data of only 6 students. Furthermore, you also need to have at least 10 faculty members to fall into the criteria of getting a rank and they were only 7. Thus these reasons made them feel that they hadn’t had a graduating class and yet they have been ranked 29th. This situation made them feel quite uncomfortable as it was not reflecting the true picture. So that is why the school immediately requested the U.S. News to remove their name.
The school did ask to be removed because of incomplete data but they were confident enough to come back with a bang. And it did happen when the Illinois’s iMBA turned heads last year by offering their iMBA at an unbelievable figure that is $22000. This amount was so appealing compared to other online programs like Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School ($122,880), the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School ($104,610), or USC’s Marshall School ($92,702). Learners started to prefer online MBA from Illinois and when the program partnered with Coursera, it became even popular. Thus the effort to expand opportunities for learners to pursue graduate business education was achieved. Echambadi said himself that, “We created a degree with online experiences that was new and unique.”
Lastly, the iMBA welcomed its third cohort in January 2017 so they won’t be having any graduation data to give why? Because it takes 23 to 36 months to complete the program and is started in 2017, there’s no way it will be completed until the 2019 rankings list is released. But still the school is gotten famous for landing 29th even with only one-quarter of the data and we’re sure they would be on top 10 of that list once they have a complete graduation data to give.Take This Course Team Prepare University of ILLINOIS Imba Review This feedback may become the best guide for those students who plan to take this program but have no idea about the University of Illinois iMBA Review.