Big trends that will shape business education in 2021

The year 2020, which seemed like multiple years in one, will be remembered as an unprecedented and monumental year for the whole world. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with itself unexpected change, hardship, and disruption into many people’s personal, as well as professional lives. We realize a deviation has been made, a disruption has happened, and constant transformation is in our future.  

But if there’s one system that has been hit the hardest, it has to be education. In a brief period, what felt like overnight, the entire educational system was pushed to go completely online. Right from the admissions process to delivery of lectures, followed by examinations and graduation ceremonies, every facet of business education operations had to embrace the social distancing requirements, health safety precautions, and most importantly, quarantine regulations. What have these setbacks meant for business education?

There are a series of trends that have changed the face of the business education landscape in the last decade – and we can expect other trends that will help bring about even more changes in 2021 and beyond.

Growth of online programs

Technology has and will always continue to have a deep impact on education and the whole learning process. The role of professors, especially at top MBA colleges in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, and other metro cities, is already experiencing a significant transformation. It is anticipated that the synergy between pedagogy and technology, new forms of augmented reality, and the internet of things, will change the way the students pursuing MBA and PG courses in India learn. Besides, training and educational programs, especially with blended formats, which merge traditional in-person learning with new kinds of technology-assisted learning, may contribute to strengthening personal and professional relations.

Curriculum adaptations

One of the most incrusted business education trends of 2021 can be found in the curriculum of top MBA and PGDM colleges in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai or say, any other location. It seems to be experiencing the need for a revamp in content and focus. The evolution of the pandemic and all the crises the last year brought upon business education requires an overhaul of insights and skills students require to learn to prepare for future success. Some of the bigger curriculum changes that have already or are likely to take place are focused towards;

Entrepreneurship

Both PGDM and top MBA colleges in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and other major cities are already starting to make great strides in facilitating entrepreneurship courses, majors, programs, concentrations, and incubators. But, the effect of the pandemic will cause a swift push in entrepreneurial offerings in business education.

Leadership

Institutes offering MBA and PGDM in Hyderabad or other cities, will develop responsible, as well as resilient leaders, who manage change effectively, value differences, lead through a crisis, learn virtual collaboration techniques, and handle uncertainty.

Skills development

There is a range of skills training included in business degree programs. But, the onset of the health and economic crises has established the importance of non-technical skills. Slowly, the focus is shifting towards skills that augment positive human interaction, relationships, and understanding. Business education, as a whole, will start incorporating more ways to strike integrity, self-awareness, curiosity, teamwork, adaptability, ethics, social awareness, and complex problem-solving skills. Students will not just learn how to communicate effectively but also to empathize with others.

Hybridization

The concept of hybridization will trend in business education as well as the workplace. As more and more companies are offering options to work remotely, top PGDM colleges in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, etc. have and will continue to accommodate both the changes needed due to the pandemic and the groundwork   for future work environment. Institutes will offer the best of both worlds in accessibility and flexibility of online coursework in association with the benefits of face-to-face interaction and instruction between students and faculty. And as advancements in technology take place and as the faculty gets more comfortable with the hybrid model, it will morph into a more effective and streamlined system.

All these trends, along with a few others, are already fostering competition at a national, as well as international level, and making business schools implement new strategies to a new culture that will transform more rapidly than ever before. The landscape of business education has grown above and beyond its conservative borders and now comprises new forms of teachings that are changing the rules of the game.