Royal Roads MBA doors open wider with expansion of student loans

The doors to a popular Royal Roads University program are open a little wider thanks to a recent provincial announcement regarding student loans.

StudentAid BC has extended full-time eligibility status for Royal Roads’ Faculty of Management Master of Business Administration (FoM MBA) blended program in time for the next study period.

That means students who are currently receiving part-time funding for taking part in the blended program — which includes online classes as well as two residencies of three and two and a half weeks respectively — are eligible to apply for full-time funding. This will allow students who aren’t able to work while enrolled in the program to access more loan money.

“For the people who needed it, it was a critical, unremovable barrier. There was no other funding, there were no other opportunities,” says Gwen Campden, RRU’s manager of student success, who lauded “the acceptance of equity and diversity, and different ways and different journeys.”

While the FoM MBA program is targeted at mid-career professionals — as are most of Royal Roads’ masters programs — and many students work full-time while taking advantage of the blended model, some prospective students have been unable to work full-time, she says. Among those are people with disabilities and single parents.

“I think you need to look beyond the program and look at the students who are taking it,” she says, “and why, and what are the potential outcomes.”

Campden, a 20-year employee of RRU who completed a Master of Arts in Professional Communication at the university, says she believes StudentAid BC’s expansion of funding for FoM MBA students is a good investment in taxpayer money given candidates for the program are usually working their way up in their company or changing careers.

Charles Krusekopf, MBA program head, added that the program is designed to help people advance personally and professionally both within their current careers and for those who are seeking to return to the workforce.

"This new loan opportunity will greatly assist people who may be out of the workforce to gain new skills and confidence as they return to work."

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FoM MBA program background

Royal Roads’ FoM MBA program offers a traditional on-campus model as well as a blended model. With the latter:

• Students complete their MBA through a mix of online courses and on-campus residencies.

• Online courses consist of assigned readings, synchronous or asynchronous lectures, interactive discussions, and individual and team assignments.

• There are two intensive and immersive residencies where students attend classes full-time at the university: The first lasts three weeks, and students work closely with their peers and instructors in classroom and team settings, creating relationships that will support then in their online studies; the second, which concludes the program, runs two and a half weeks and helps students integrate and apply what they’ve learned in the program to help a client address organizational challenges.

Learn more about the Faculty of Management Master of Business Administration program.