New WashU Olin Flex MBA: Meeting the needs of working professionals

Working professionals ready to bolster their business skills now have a new, more flexible option at WashU Olin.

The Flex MBA, launching with its first cohort in the fall, will leverage Olin’s world-class faculty, highly skilled digital team and post-pandemic experience to provide a rigorous program with in-person, remote and hybrid choices.

“Broad market research, along with interviews with Olin students and alumni, indicated that today’s part-time students value choice and flexibility in an MBA program,” Dean Mike Mazzeo said in announcing the program to the Olin community. “WashU Olin’s Flex MBA program will meet the needs of these students, enabling them to grow and learn within a program that fits their needs and lifestyles.”

The Flex MBA brings together the best of Olin’s long-standing Professional MBA program and newer Online MBA, developed with experience built during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also leans into WashU Olin’s focus on developing values-based, data-driven decision-makers who are prepared to take their careers to the next level.

“The demand for flexible part-time graduate degree programs has skyrocketed in recent years,” said Andrew Knight, Olin’s vice dean for education and globalization.

WashU Olin is introducing the Flex MBA to provide maximum flexibility while maintaining academic rigor.  

Andrew Knight

While the program retains the rigorous curriculum, teamwork, collaboration and research-based education from both programs, it adds a level of flexibility so students can choose the course modality that works for their lifestyle and schedule.

For example, the two-year program includes a cohesive experience for the program’s core classes, with two sections of “flex design”: one for in-person students (with limited remote attendance, with instructor permission) and one for fully remote students.

Meanwhile, the elective options provide flexibility in modality and schedule. Electives can be all online, all in-person, or a combination of the two

The strong MBA core looks at today’s business challenges through a modern lens, while more than 100 electives in nine functional areas of business are available to students starting in their first semester.

Knight said the program also recognizes the need for today’s business professionals to excel in a world that transcends in-person and virtual work. The Flex MBA builds on the strong foundations of Olin’s Online MBA and Professional MBA programs and, indeed, will replace the two programs in fall 2024.