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The two big things I did this week were giving a presentation to the Canadian Association of Instructional Designers on EdTech, AI, and the environment, and celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. But aside from thinking a lot about AI and Persuasion, what did I read?
The MBA: Gateway degree, global edition
A brief article about the growth of online learning in India caught my eye, in part because of the dominance of MBAs in that online market. It is based on a survey of institutions that I wasn’t able to track down, but the top-line results are interesting in and of themselves.
Business and technology dominate degree choices for online study, with the online MBA standing out in particular.
Key Highlights (Year-End 2025)
● MBA leads India’s online degree market with 42.52% of all enrollments; the single largest share across programs.
● Tech degrees form 28%+ of India’s online learner base, led by BCA (16.67%) and MCA (11.27%).
● BBA is the fastest-growing UG management degree, rising to 43.87% YoY growth in 2025.
● Doctorate in Business Administration is the biggest breakout trend of 2025, recording an 86.82% YoY jump (despite a smaller market share of 1.86%).
[snip]
India is choosing degrees that make them employable
Large-scale study in India is fairly new, so the role of the MBA in establishing the market is particularly interesting.
But even globally, the online MBA is growing, as recent research from business school accreditor, AACSB shows in its analysis of enrollment trends at business schools.
Enrollment in fully online MBA programs [snip] has steadily increased, from 30 percent in 2020–21 to 38 percent in 2024–25.
Interestingly, however, the growth of online delivery in MBA programs does not extend to specialist master’s degrees in business, where online enrollment has remained flat at around 12%. The AACSB provides its definition of delivery types.
