Education

Harvard Law School Will Be Online-Only In The Fall, Harvard’s Entering MBA Class Is Down Nearly 25%


Harvard University has announced that six of its graduate schools, including Harvard Law School, will not hold face-to-face classes this fall, with plans in place to continue with online learning. The Kennedy School, the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the schools of design and divinity are the other schools not convening on campus this next semester, while the Graduate School of Education will hold online-only classes for the full academic year.

In addition, the incoming Harvard Business School Class of 2022, the first cohort accepted since the coronavirus outbreak, shrank nearly 25% compared with student numbers the year before. The school has said that the incoming class will have 720 students, sharply lower than the 938 enrolled the year before.

The business school has not yet announced whether it will offer in-person classes this fall.

There has been a great deal of anxiety about whether students would enroll at universities this fall, after a spring semester disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, and whether campuses could safely reopen after closing their doors in March. With household incomes hit by the global economic slowdown and international students in particular facing travel bans and visa issuance challenges, a decline in fall enrollments has been largely anticipated.

Many schools are already under financial pressure after reimbursing some room and board costs to students as well as investing in technology when courses pivoted to an online format. Due to the impact of the global health crisis, the financial situation at Harvard, one of the world’s most preeminent higher education institutions, has been described by some experts as “grave.”

In a message on the Harvard Business School website, Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee explained that the school had “decided to allow incoming students in the Class of 2022 to defer their offer of enrollment, given the challenges and uncertainties they are facing in this unusual year. In so doing, we recognized that we would likely enroll a smaller class in Fall 2020.”

He said that “after drawing from our strong wait list … the school expects to enroll a class of about 720.” The deferral window closed just prior to Losee’s message.

In an earlier website posting, Losee characterized each business school class size as numbering a “typical 930” and that the school was allowing the Class of 2022 to request a 1 to 2-year deferral of their enrollment.

In announcing that Harvard Law School programming will be remote this fall, Dean John F. Manning wrote in a message to students: “We very much hope that you choose to remain in what we expect to be an exciting and enriching online academic and social program. But we want to be sure that you have a fair opportunity to make a decision that is right for you based on the best information we can provide you at this time.”

Harvard Law’s Manning said the school would offer an additional deferral period from June 15 through June 19 for newly-admitted J.D. and LL.M students, and would extend to June 19 the deadline for returning students to apply for a leave of absence. After those deadlines have passed, the school would be able to finalize the actual number of students enrolled for the fall.

Some experts see a trend of graduate programs continuing with online classes.

“I expect more colleges to put graduate programs online in the fall due to on-campus space limitations,” said Dr. Robert Kelchen, Associate Professor of higher education at Seton Hall University. “With social distancing requirements, large classrooms will be at a premium and most colleges will place a priority at getting undergraduates on campus since those students are more at risk of going elsewhere.”

Harvard University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, is also among the most expensive. The university estimates that the overall cost of attending Harvard Business School, including room and board, is $111,102, with tuition alone at $73,440.

Of the 938 students that comprised the Harvard Business School Class of 2021, 14 percent of the total cohort were from Asia, many of them from China, where visa issuances and mobility in and out of the country remain heavily compromised. There are around 370,000 students from China enrolled in programs at US universities and colleges overall, out of one million total international students in the country.

The business school admitted roughly ten percent of the overall applications received for the Class of 2021.

In May, Harvard Medical School said its fall term would be online. At the time of publication, Harvard had not responded to emails seeking comment.



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.