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Regional director for Europe at GMAC Nalisha Patel scrutinises the latest admissions trends in graduate management education (GME) and upholds the organisation’s commitment to supporting student mobility, both internationally and across socio-economic backgrounds
“This trend is particularly apparent in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. With burgeoning middle classes, more corporate multinationals and high-quality GME presence in key markets such as India and China, as well as across Africa and Latin America, candidates from around the world have more options and economic opportunities at home than ever before. Further factors, including affordability, safety and proximity to home are also increasingly important differentiators to candidates as they ponder their study destinations.” How can business schools continue to attract high-quality international candidates? “Some things remain timeless, such as the relevance and quality of education, as well as the network. However, the reality is that most good business schools have these, so helping people make the right choice is important. “Being clear on your institution’s unique mix of strengths is one way of making it stand out. Offering tangible insights into any ongoing or future initiatives is another differentiator. In addition, it is essential to meet prospective students where they are, so that you can speak to their needs, in their voice and in the places they seek inspiration and information.”
GMAC’s latest Application Trends Survey showed a decline in total application numbers across the MBA and other forms of graduate management education (GME). Is this indicative of lower demand or does it speak to shifting application trends? “There are shifting trends globally and, as the survey suggested, the declines were not felt evenly and related to applications rather than applicants. For example, programmes that offer more flexibility, such as hybrid, online and evening options, received more applications than in-person, structured formats. US business schools, as another example, experienced a strengthening in domestic application numbers across delivery formats after several challenging years with this pipeline. “Overall, schools continue to expand their portfolios to provide a richer array of choice that enables people to consider graduate
management education at every stage of their career and life. This means that there are strong offerings across geographies that are doing a good job at differentiating themselves and communicating that to candidates.” In the same survey, more responding programmes reported declines in international applications in 2023 than growth. Are prospective students more inclined to look closer to home for business school than they were pre-pandemic? “This is true. Another annual GMAC survey investigates prospective students’ motivations and sheds further light on this shift towards domestic and in-region applications. It has shown that plans to apply locally, regionally or nationally within a candidate’s country of residence has increased since 2019, reaching a high in 2023 that eclipses even the 2021 rebound from the pandemic.
18 | Ambition | JUNE 2024
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