HBS online operations reached a peak in FY 20211 min read

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FY 2021 shows that Harvard Business School’s on-campus executive education revenue plunged to $81 million from $222 million since 2019. It brought in only 10% of the revenue, below the 14% from MBA. Covid-19 has had a shock on HBS Executive Education business.

Despite this fact, HBS Online operations peaked at $76 million. It is only 9% of the school’s $805 million in overall revenues but that figure is 31% more than the $58 million achieved a year earlier. The most profitable part of revenue was the school’s publishing arm which achieved 34% of the earnings, followed by its $5.3 billion endowment, which brought in 30% of the revenue.

The school got a 112% increase in applications for online courses, because they continued to expand a portfolio for growing number of participants. For example, there is a possibility to enroll on such courses like Economics for Managers, an eight-week course priced at $1600, or Sustainable Business Strategy for three weeks and $1400. HBS offers online courses in different areas: business essentials, leadership and management, entrepreneurship and innovation, strategy, finance and accounting, and business in society. Last year, 39 566 students completed online training. This format was launched in 2017 but moved into the black in fiscal 2019.

These figures exceeded the school’s forecast and provided operating profit for the third year in a row. HBS experts say that the public perception of online learning has changed over time. There is much more loyalty to online learning today, because people who now make decisions in companies have experienced online learning and, in general, online education has much higher quality offerings than it did.