We cut MBA prices because America needs more professionals, not fewer

Opinion>Opinions - Education The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill We cut MBA prices because America needs more professionals, not fewer Comments: by Ian O. Williamson, opinion contributor - 06/26/26 12:30 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ian O. Williamson, opinion contributor - 06/26/26 12:30 PM ET Comments: Link copied

Title: On-The-Money-NerdWallet-Master-Business-Skills Image ID: 23151453643376 Article: FILE – A tassel with 2023 on it rests on a graduation cap as students walk in a procession for Howard University’s commencement in Washington, Saturday, May 13, 2023. MBA grads say the investment in their degree was worth it, according to a 2022 survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, an association of graduate business schools. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

My business school at University of California Irvine recently reduced the price of its part-time and executive Master of Business Administration program by as much as $48,000. Several headlines suggested that our actions signaled a “fire sale” on MBAs. But this perspective misses the key goal of our decision.

This is not a story about price. This is a story about access, and why increasing access to a world-class business education is critical to the future of American business.

Within two years, artificial intelligence will be embedded across every major company in the world. McKinsey’s 2025 global survey already puts enterprise AI adoption at 88 percent, up from 78 percent the year before. When AI is everywhere, it stops being a source of competitive advantage. Advantage moves to where it has always lived: in the skill of a company’s workforce.

The 2025 World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report identifies analytical thinking, AI and big-data fluency, leadership and complex problem-solving as the critical skills employers will need over the next five years. These are exactly the skills developed by graduate business degrees.

Unfortunately, this is the talent America is currently underproducing. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country average for individuals between the ages of 25 and 34 attaining an advanced degree is 16 percent. The U.S. average sits below this at 11 percent. Even more concerning, the gap between this average and the U.S. has increased over the last 5 years. America is running short on educated workers at the exact moment when they matter the most.

Current government policy has narrowed the definition of “professional” graduate degrees to law, medicine and a small handful of disciplines, while characterizing business education as a “non-professional” degree. As a result of this policy, students pursuing a graduate business degree may soon have reduced access to federal government-sponsored student loans.

This change will negatively affect individuals from low-income backgrounds the most, thus limiting economic and social mobility and constraining the growth of the nation’s business talent pipeline. Business education develops individuals with the skills needed by every employer in the country.

Accounting, finance, human resource management and other business disciplines are all externally accredited professions whose members have a meaningful impact on the nation’s economy. Framing business as something less than a profession distorts the conversation about where we as a nation should invest.

Nowhere is the potential cost of that distortion more visible than in California. California generated 29.3 percent of U.S.-origin patents in 2024, performs roughly 35 percent of the nation’s business research and development. As of July 2025, its startups attracted close to two-thirds of all U.S. venture dollars.

But none of that intellectual property generates jobs, tax revenue or public benefit without business professionals trained to commercialize it. Reducing the supply of those business professionals will likely lead to us wasting a generation of American invention.

So why did we lower the price of our degree? Not because the degree is worth less. Research published by Poets&Quants shows that on average an MBA generates $2.3 million in additional lifetime earnings for an individual over a bachelor’s alone. Furthermore, fewer than 5 percent of graduate student borrowers default on their student loans. The return on investing in a graduate business degree for both individuals and the nation is clear.

We reduced our prices to ensure more individuals have access to the life-changing opportunities created by business education. At the Paul Merage School of Business, all of our master’s business programs have been redesigned to prepare leaders for using AI to enhance business operations. Our goal is to create the talent pool needed for America to remain competitive in an AI-driven global economy.

There is an opposing narrative that suggests our nation should be encouraging Americans to pursue vocational training, as opposed to graduate degrees, based on the logic that vocational careers will not be impacted by AI. However, as AI becomes endemic, no job in our economy will be untouched by AI, including the trades.

The workers who thrive will be the ones trained to direct the technology, not those hoping to hide from it. Encouraging Americans to retreat from advanced education, while global competitors encourage their citizens to pursue university education is a bad strategy for winning in today’s economy.

America is in a race to build the most capable workforce in the world. Higher education, graduate business education in particular, is key to ensuring we are successful. The question is not whether the MBA is on sale. It is whether the country has the vision and will to support more people to attain one.

Ian O. Williamson Ph.D. is dean of the University of California Irvine Paul Merage School of Business and vice chair of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.