Is space the final frontier for business education?

04 May 2024

Andrew Crisp looks at some of the data from the forthcoming Tomorrow’s Masters report to see where new programme demand is emerging.

First, every business school had to be international, and then have programmes on entrepreneurship, followed by data analytics and sustainability.  Today AI is everywhere.  The latest Tomorrow’s Master’s study suggests space may be a new frontier for business education.

Among almost 60 Master’s degree subjects tested in the Tomorrow’s Masters study, Space and Satellite Industries was sought by 8% of the respondents putting it next to last, just ahead of Public Sector Management; hardly a signal to jump in with both feet.  Look a little wider though and maybe this is a case of a green shoot that could grow into something much larger over the next few years.

Elon Musk’s adventures in space are rarely out of the headlines.  Add in Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson with high-profile space ventures and there is a growing private sector.  On top of this, nation states are making significant advances in space not just traditional explorers such as the USA, but India, China and Japan among others.  According to Bloomberg, “The global space economy grew 8% to $546 billion in 2022 and is projected to climb another 41% over the next five years”.

Of course, many of the jobs associated with this growth will be technology-related, but a substantial number will require key business skills from accounting to communications to logistics and much more.  Exploring the business of space today may offer significant opportunities for business schools in the future.

For schools wanting to see the future of Master’s degrees, the data suggests some other areas for potential exploration.  Healthcare Management is already a growing area of provision and is now inside the top ten of preferred subjects of study.  There are a cluster of sustainability topics, including Renewable Energy and Environmental Management which are typically sought by around 1 in 6 of respondents to the study.

Inevitably technology-related subjects are popular with 19% looking to study Cybersecurity in a business context and 17% wanting Cryptocurrency,

A little further back, and perhaps another topic for the future is E-sports sought by 12% of respondents.  And there is perhaps one more subject that business schools might want to consider, although it wasn’t included in this year’s study: Cannabis.  A number of countries have made changes to their drug laws in recent years, effectively legalising personal use of cannabis products.  In the USA, adult use of cannabis is now legal in 24 states, the industry is expected to have revenues of over $40 billion this year and there are 440,445 full-time equivalent jobs supported by legal cannabis, according to FlowHub. 

With growing interest in interdisciplinary degrees, Cannabis may be an ideal case study, pulling in content from agriculture, law, business, medicine, ethics and more.  The frontiers of business Master’s degrees are certainly expanding for those schools that are able to embrace the future.

The 2024 Tomorrow’s Masters report will be published later in May 2024.