rumours of the death of the mba are however greatly exaggerated but its health does give some cause for concern for some time now enrolment figures for mbas even allowing for regional variations have shown signs of stagnation and even some decline worldwide in september 2011 the wall street journal reported that applications for mbas to us business schools had declined for three consecutive years similar figures are reported by the association of business schools in the uk nevertheless mbas remain the cash cows of business schools and mba graduates still earn salaries well above those of graduates from other subject disciplines so why are there rumours of the imminent death of mbas origins of the degree it is useful to look back to the origins of the mba and chart its evolution before looking forward to what its future may hold the worlds first mba degree was launched at the newly established harvard business school in 1908 mbas were developed partly as a consequence of the more scientific approaches to management and the associated need for formal training for managers they developed at a time when there were very few undergraduate degrees in business and when most managers were graduates from disciplines like engineering who had received no formal training in the techniques of managing businesses and people ironically alongside the proliferation of mbas in the second half of the 20century there was an equally rapid expansion of the numbers of undergraduate business programmes like bbas with increasingly large numbers of graduates from such programmes entering the business arena the consequence has been growing confusion over the nature and purpose of the mba if a student has undergone three or four years of management at an ug level is an mba which gives one or two years more of the same the best vehicle for developing these business graduates as effective leaders and managers the answer to this question is a resounding no the dilemma is that while the mba is probably not the most effective vehicle for further developing managers who have already received an undergraduate education in business and management the currency of the mba has remained strong henry mintzberg one of the worlds leading management gurus challenged the preeminence of the mba as a vehicle for developing managers in his book managers not mbas where he highlighted that the theoretical and discrete subject focus of mbas was not producing effective management practitioners changing needs the development of such management practitioners necessitates programmes which foster the application of knowledge in practice and where individuals develop a critically reflective approach to their leadership and management style their impact on others and the organisations which they serve of course mbas have attempted to adapt to such needs by incorporating more contemporary subjects like leadership and ethics elements of interdisciplinarity and personal development but most mbas still have a strong emphasis on traditional academic subjects like economics finance marketing strategy etc it is questionable whether business graduates of