Traditionally, having an MBA meant that you were one of an exclusive group of highly selected students who had survived a rigorous academic programme, with a strong emphasis on quantitative and analytical skills. While you might have little or no organisational experience, you were confident in your ability to solve problems, and expected a correspondingly high salary on appointment.
It is clear from the numbers above that an MBA is no longer a mark of exclusivity. But paradoxically the massive expansion in MBA provision has, in many ways, made the qualification more attractive to employers. This is because of a shift in emphasis in MBA content, and a major change in those studying for the qualification. Both changes were pioneered primarily in the UK, where the typical student is now in their late twenties or thirties, has considerable management experience, and is more likely to be studying while working (via part-time, executive or distance learning programmes) rather than incurring the opportunity costs of full-time study. In fact, many managers are now studying UK MBA programmes from around the globe, without detriment to the quality of their student experience or the value of the qualification.
Employers no longer see MBA as standing for arrogance, ignorance of the real world and high salary demands (twenty years ago, this was a common view in Europe outside of the traditional blue-chip employers of MBAs). Instead, they see the qualification, allied to relevant experience and proven organisational achievements, as indicating flexibility, the ability to welcome rather than resist change, creativity, self-motivation, personal effectiveness, and a range of other qualities needed in the fluid organisational environments to which they are currently recruiting.