They are seen as the lucrative money-spinners that help to keep university budgets afloat. But a new survey indicates that one in five MBAs offered by business schools around the world is, in fact, run at a loss.

In a survey of global business school leaders conducted by the Association of MBAs, the results of which have been seen by ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ, 24 of 121 respondents said that their MBA did not make a profit.

Many institutions continue to offer a loss-making course because of the ¡°prestige¡± associated with the qualification, the study found, with 20 of these 24 schools citing it as a ¡°jewel in the crown¡± for a business school¡¯s offerings.

An MBA programme director from a Europe-based institution said that if you are a ¡°fully fledged business school you should also have an MBA¡±, but noted that the global market has been ¡°declining for years¡±.

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Gregory Whitwell, dean of the?University of Sydney¡¯s Business School, said that MBA programmes can ¡°place a greater demand on resources¡±, particularly when schools are pursuing ¡°top 50 rankings positions¡±.

¡°In schools, such as Sydney, which offer multiple postgraduate programmes, funds allocated to MBAs can drain resources from other areas, causing internal friction,¡± he told?³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ. ¡°Having said that, I believe that all of these issues can be managed successfully but require some fine judgement.

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¡°MBAs remain an important element in the executive education mix irrespective of whether they return a profit or not. They also deliver a range of more subtle benefits: they reflect well on the school and its postgraduate programmes in general, help to generate closer links to industry, and produce a highly supportive alumni network with high-level connections in the international corporate world.¡±

Of 17 UK-based business schools that answered the question on profitability, seven said that they made a loss on MBAs.

Overall, 173 of AMBA¡¯s 240-plus accredited schools, based in 43 countries, answered the online survey, conducted in association with global strategy consultancy, Parthenon-EY.

Andrew Main Wilson, AMBA¡¯s chief executive, noted that three-quarters of respondents said that their MBA generated a profit for their school or university. He added that the programme¡¯s revenue fitted into everything offered by a given school ¨C including undergraduate and postgraduate courses, executive education, alumni income ¨C and should be taken in context.

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¡°It¡¯s a strong indicator of how powerful the MBA is worldwide. If you look at the education sector across the world, the MBA still is the most recognised and respected business qualification,¡± he said.

john.elmes@timeshighereducation.com