Last week, Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business announced that it will change the name of its MBA Fast Track Program to “the Babson MBA Blended Learning Program”. The program has been renamed to highlight its unique educational delivery model, which features a blend of online and offline learning. The combination of web-based, face-to-face, and virtual interactions give working professionals more flexibility to pursue their MBA, while also giving them the chance to experience a more traditional classroom environment.
Babson offers four program options that lead to an MBA degree: One-Year, Two-Year, Evening, and Blended Learning. Students in all four programs take the same core courses with the same faculty members. Students also choose from a common pool of electives. The name change of the Fast Track Program to the Blended Learning program will ensure that all four program names inherently describe the delivery format of the MBA content, because the delivery format is the principle difference between the four program options.
There are more than 1,200 alumni and current students of the Fast Track Program. However, the students seem to appreciate the name change. Hans Olson, MBA’14, explained to Babson: “This new name will allow me to more easily explain to colleagues what the program is. I know that my degree will be a Babson MBA, but I often also describe the program format so others understand my time out of office for face-to-face sessions and why the blended approach is so critical to maximizing learning opportunities.”
