Counting Down Some of the Most Popular MBA Specializations

MBA specializations have grown in their appeal among prospective MBA students.

This year 20% of more than 12,000 people looking at postgraduate business education options around the world were focusing their attention on specialized master’s degrees in lieu of an MBA and almost half were considering these alongside the traditional format, according to a recent GMAC report.

The rise in interest is well known to the world of business education. Leading schools invariably update and add to their portfolios of MBA program options with each passing year and many have become well-established in particular specialties, as this infographic highlights.  

New types of specialized MBA programs and related master’s degrees continue to emerge in fields that can be as niche as they are diverse. So, which areas available as MBA specializations, or as focused tracks within an MBA program, have the strongest draw on the MBA students of tomorrow?

Below is a countdown of the disciplines that ranked from 10th to 6th in terms of the number of respondents to the QS Applicant Survey 2014 who singled them out as MBA specializations they’d be looking to embark upon.     

10. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Ethical and environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important as global businesses try to put the woes of the financial crisis behind them.

As such, it’s no surprise that one in eight of the MBA students of tomorrow are now interested in MBA specializations in CSR, pushing e-commerce out of this top 10.

Ethics-related courses, including CSR, have become much more widely available in MBA programs, serving as evidence of how seriously these concerns are being taken by leading business schools. Although some believe that these courses shouldn’t be merely an optional area of focus, but that CSR’s ethical teachings should by now form part of the core curricula for all students.

9. Technology management

Although prospective MBA students hailing from backgrounds in technology rose by 5% in the last year, interest in MBA specializations in technology management couldn’t match the growth reported in last year’s survey.

However, the area continues to be under consideration by more than a fifth of applicants – which equals technology management’s 21% share among MBA job functions reported by international recruiters

While this proportion may stretch across industries (respondents could highlight more than one area as a function), the technology industry is growing at a faster rate than most other sectors right now, with a recent survey from GMAC showing that 15% of early job offers received by graduates this year emanated from the tech sector.

8. Operations management

Even though the jury’s still out over whether everyone fully understands all that the multi-disciplinary field of operations management entails, as an MBA specialization its interest to the future MBA students continues to grow.

Just under a quarter of applicant respondents this year cited an interest in operations management, which again closely corresponds to the proportion of MBA job functions reported under this area of expertise.

7. Marketing

Marketing wasn’t able to capture the imaginations of quite as many of this year’s MBA applicants, balancing out the moderate surge in interest the discipline witnessed last year. But, the subject still appeals to approximately a third of all those surveyed.

Marketing roles can of course be found in almost every industry. It’s therefore no surprise to learn that 36% of MBA job opportunities reported by employers in the 2013/14 QS Jobs & Salary Trends Report noted marketing as a function as businesses look to keep pace with the rapid changes that are taking place in the marketing landscape.

6. Entrepreneurship

As with marketing, approximately a third of MBA applicants are interested in MBA specializations in entrepreneurship – although this proportion has remained relatively stable over the past two years.

This number is virtually identical to the proportion of respondents (32.4%) who, elsewhere in the survey, said that entrepreneurship and starting their own business was a prime factor behind their desire to pursue an MBA.  

Want to know which MBA specializations made the top five this year? Register to download the full QS Applicant Survey 2014 for free.