Online master’s programs remain popular years after the pandemic
The 2023-2024 report on graduate healthcare management programs from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education reveals shifting student preferences for residential, hybrid and online-only settings.
However, economic and industry uncertainty may make it too soon to tell whether more healthcare professionals will pursue advanced degrees.
Here are three things to know about this year’s report.
1. Online-only programs continue to draw interest
Years after the COVID-19 pandemic, many students continue to choose online programs over more traditional residential or hybrid programs.
The number of online-only programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education grew from 34 on the 2022-2023 master’s program list to 43 on this year’s list. The two largest programs listed for 2024 also saw an increase in graduates. The largest program, the University of Phoenix, saw an increase of more than 7% in 2023-24 graduates over the previous year, while the University of North Carolina at Wilmington saw an increase of almost 50%.
“The growth in online healthcare management programs reflects a shift in learner preferences that accelerated during the pandemic and has continued since,” said CAHME President and CEO Anthony Stanowski. “What began as a necessity has matured into a viable, scalable model — particularly for content delivery and technical skill-building.”
Jane Banaszak-Holl, chair of the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, sees value in online-only programs but also highlights the importance of in-person interactions. The program had 82 graduates in the 2023-24 school year, 54 in residential or hybrid master of science in health administration programs and 28 in an online-only master’s degree program.
Banaszak-Holl said the school focuses on hybrid programs.
“That’s partly because we do bring students to campus for a couple weekends in a term,” she said. “It’s through those weekends that they get contact with experts in the field, that we run simulations and that they have extensive discussions with their peers and experts.”
Stanowski said programs with online elements need to combine that flexibility with rigor.
“The most successful programs will target learners’ needs by finding the sweet spot that blends experiential learning with the delivery model that best supports their goals,” he said.
2. More insight into program quality
The percentage of programs reporting net promoter scores at the “great” or “excellent” level remained at 69% in 2023–24, based on programs accredited as of May 2025. While the share of programs reporting high net promoter scores held steady, the number of graduates rating the quality of their learning experience increased.A net promoter score adjusts the percentage of people rating something at the highest level by subtracting the percentage of people who rate a program at the lowest level. In the 2022-23 school year, CAHME began requiring accredited programs to report scores from their graduates.
Stanowski said the value of such feedback lies in programs being able to benchmark themselves against their peers.
“In several cases, programs that previously believed they were meeting student needs were surprised to see peer comparative data that exceeded their own,” he said.
3. Managing in a ‘constant crisis environment’
Challenges brought on by uncertainty about the economy and the healthcare sector are not new, Banaszak-Holl said.
“I think that is a constant crisis environment,” she said. “And it didn’t just start with the economic changes the last couple of years. It started with COVID.”
She said problems such as supply chain disruptions have not been fully resolved, and any cuts to programs like Medicaid would further strain the system.
To help students prepare for these pressures, she said the UAB program emphasizes population health as a critical component of management decisions. Rural health systems in the state are struggling, Banaszak-Holl said, so understanding the makeup of the populations they serve is essential to supporting rural health.
“I think post-COVID it’s even more important that you have to know your population base, both the chronic and acute-care load, and how that’s shifting in the population,” she said.
While it’s too early to say for certain, Banaszak-Holl believes that, given the changes in the healthcare sector, management master’s programs overall are likely to see an uptick in enrollment.
“I do think advanced degrees definitely build the knowledge and competencies that help people think about getting ahead, even during tough times,” she said.
