Achieving alumni status at an institution like the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School or Stanford used to mean years spent on campus and an outlay of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, some students can add top-tier schools to their resume after several weeks, and far less money.
They’re attending a growing number of executive education programs across the US, contributing to a market that’s expected to swell to more than $1.2 billion over the next decade, according to estimates from trade group Unicon.
Colleges are building new facilities and adding staff to bolster their offerings, as well as creating courses to keep up with demand and the trends of the moment. Right now, that means artificial intelligence: Wharton lists almost a dozen non-degree programs with AI in the title, while at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, participants can pay more than $12,000 to spend five days on campus immersed in “Leading the AI-Driven Organization.”
The programs are a growing source of revenue for universities, some of which are facing financial crunches and higher taxes on their endowment earnings. MIT warned last week of financial pressure from a drop in federal funding and graduate-school enrollment. Meanwhile, its Sloan School of Management took in its highest-ever gross revenue for executive education last year. Harvard University alone generated $612 million from continuing and executive programs in the last academic year, up from just $155 million two decades ago.
Executives, professors and recruiters say that the courses — especially from brand-name schools — can be a good way to plug knowledge gaps, acquire up-to-the-minute skills and build a network of peers. But they agree on one thing: Don’t overstate your credentials, and don’t expect it to be a one-off career game-changer.
‘A Signaling Thing’
Dave Sherwood, the founder of a 300-person education tech company, took a week-long leadership class at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2023. Feedback during a performance review had encouraged him to seek training on how to build more effective teams, so he asked his board chair about the Stanford course. The company paid for it.
Sherwood, 34, said he enjoyed spending time on campus in the San Francisco Bay area, thousands of miles away from his offices in Dallas and London. His main takeaway was that power doesn’t come from a title, but must be earned.
“If I had to self-fund, I’d probably still do a course, but my criteria would be a lot more strict,” said Sherwood, who acknowledged that as a manager, offering employees access to courses could help with retention. He didn’t stay in touch with his cohort, but like many professionals who complete similar certificates, he posted about it — with a photo of the class — on LinkedIn.
“It’s very much like a signaling thing,” Sherwood said.
In the past, executive education was dominated by employer-paid degrees or custom courses designed for specific companies, with some leading to more traditional MBA programs that kept executives tied up for years. Now, open enrollment — where an individual student signs up for a course created by the school — makes up almost half of all revenue, data from Unicon show.
The shift accelerated during the pandemic, when courses moved online and schools realized there was huge demand for qualifications via remote learning. Post-pandemic, schools stuck with the hybrid model, often offering more technical content online but still providing an opportunity for professionals wanting to make in-person connections, according to Melanie Weaver Barnett, executive director of Unicon.
Some companies offer tuition reimbursement as a benefit. If employers are paying, they may want staff to return with new skills as soon as possible, said Michael Sacks, a professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. The school in Atlanta has designed custom courses for companies including United Parcel Service Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Companies want “an immediate skill delivered,” said Sacks. “Ten years ago, it was developing leaders for long-term growth.”
Speed was a crucial catalyst for Shiva Pullepu, who self-funded a certificate program at Wharton aimed at current or aspiring chief technology officers. He’d always wanted to study at a US university, and sought out the course in the middle of a career transition. The program takes nine to 12 months to complete and costs about $20,000.
A multi-year degree would have moved too slowly for the current pace of enterprise AI and technology, said Pullepu, 50, who has a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Though the core modules and electives were taught online, the cohort spent a few days together on campus, snapping photos in front of the Wharton sign. Some of them keep in touch via a regular Saturday morning virtual drop-in and a Whatsapp group, created by a classmate, Puneet Bhargava.
Bhargava, 50, also paid for the certificate himself. Bhargava said those catch ups alone have been a valuable resource, with people in the network acting as a sounding board for each other.
Adding Capacity
To keep up with the demand — and bolster their finances — schools across the US are growing their offerings.
Northwestern University last year broke ground on a new home for the Kellogg School of Management’s executive education courses, which will also house other programs. The $300 million building in Evanston, Illinois, will nearly double the number of available classroom seats and, like the building it’s replacing, include accommodation for participants.
Kellogg is also adding executive education courses to an outpost near Miami that’s located at a Hyatt Regency hotel, with demand coming from Latin America, family offices and local businesses.
“The world keeps changing so fast, people need to upgrade,” said Kellogg’s dean, Francesca Cornelli.
Wharton is doubling the footprint of its San Francisco campus, relocating to a standalone building that will also house professional courses. Its executive education center on the main campus in Philadelphia includes a full-service hotel and has added a half-dozen new open-enrollment and online certificate programs over the last year.
And Stanford Law School last year hired its first associate dean for executive education and strategic partnerships, Adam Sterling, who will expand its programs, including courses covering AI strategy and business school fundamentals for legal professionals.
Hampton University, a historically Black college in Virginia, is hoping to tap into a specific group of prospective students: professional athletes. In February, the school announced a hybrid online and in-person program, in partnership with nonprofit group Project Reap, to teach the fundamentals of commercial real estate to current and former pros from sports organizations, including the National Football League, National Basketball Association and WNBA.
The program, which costs about $5,000 for three courses, started recruiting at a job fair at this year’s Super Bowl.
Players from all three leagues get tuition reimbursements for higher education as part of contracts negotiated by the players’ associations.
“Once they are finished doing what they do, that transition is hard,” said Glenda Evans, who directs the program for Hampton. “I don’t see it any different from the military.”
While the US government has long funded education for military personnel and veterans, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced that the Defense Department would eliminate fellowships at 13 US colleges, including Harvard, MIT and Princeton University.
In fiscal year 2025, Harvard took in about $3.6 million from government contracts for courses, according to public records, with the bulk coming from the Defense Department. That’s still a fraction of the school’s total revenue from executive programs. Executive education tuition and online courses were the largest source of revenue at Harvard Business School last financial year, and others, including the medical and public health schools, also offer their own programs.
“A lot of universities are trying to make sure they are doing the best they can to remain financially sustainable, and certainly this is a way to help do that,” said Patrick Mullane, executive director of Harvard Business School online and executive education.
Alumni Status
At Wharton and Stanford’s Graduate Business School, executives can choose certain certifications — usually longer programs aimed at senior management — that come with alumni status. At Wharton, perks include a forwarding email address and access to alumni clubs, while at Stanford, alumni get access to the school’s directory and can tee off at the private golf course where Tiger Woods played.
In a tougher job market, anything that signals commitment to relevant skills and leadership development can help a candidate stand out, said Ash Athawale, senior vice president for global executive search at Robert Half.
But it “doesn’t give me the same kind of comfort it would have if somebody had actually gone to the school,” Athawale said, advising that attendees do not list the school as their alma mater. Instead, he said, applicants should focus on “options that offer clear skills development and measurable outcomes.”
For Pullepu, who completed the Wharton CTO program, that meant being realistic about the benefits of self-funding a course.
“This is something you want to buy, like a nice watch,” said Pullepu. “The nice watch may not be of value to somebody else.”
Lorin writes for Bloomberg.
The post Fast-track ‘alumni’ boom: how short courses at Harvard and Stanford became big business appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
