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Many business schools are exploring expansion options involving overseas campuses to compensate for stagnant domestic markets. AMBA & BGA CEO Andrew Main Wilson advises on the steps to take to ensure such initiatives further strengthen an institution’s commitment to excellence
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• Be careful with your real estate plans. If possible, rent existing space on a short-term lease until you are satisfied you have proof of concept in terms of financial viability. • Since the main priority for many students is to ensure a bigger, better paid job upon graduation, be sure to outline how you will build credible relationships with local employers from the outset. Students will want evidence and reassurance that your career placement network is strong. • Be clear in advance how you will attract top faculty in-country. Bear in mind that faculty may well want reassurance that you are committed to offering long-term employment in that country. Some schools plan to take full advantage of fly-in, flexible faculty, but this will often be too costly in the long term. • Take full advantage of strong testimonials from alumni who graduated from your school in your home market and have returned or gone to work in the country of your newly planned campus. The vast majority of our AMBA & BGA network will choose to build international relationships with other schools in the network, rather than opening their
own overseas campuses. Double degrees, student exchanges, faculty placements and shared research projects are the most sought-after international collaborations, especially in strong growth markets. I recently returned from an extensive AMBA & BGA roadshow in India and must say that the increasing quality in standards among Indian schools is extremely impressive, particularly from recently created private business schools, some of whom have built campuses to rival the very best in Europe and the US. This week I visited Uzbekistan, where we attracted over 100 business school leaders as a result of signing a formal Memorandum of Understanding with the country’s National Quality Assurance Agency for Education. Uzbekistan may not yet be on your radar for international partnerships, but some of the schools we visited, like those emerging schools in India, are hugely ambitious and have built highly impressive campuses. In an increasingly uncertain world, economically and geopolitically, I am enormously encouraged by the energy and ambition to expand internationally and to improve quality standards, as demonstrated by so many of our AMBA & BGA schools worldwide.
am increasingly witnessing a growth in international relationship building among
our AMBA & BGA business school networks, which now comprise more than 550 such institutions. In addition to forging new partnerships, many schools are exploring the opportunities and risks of setting up satellite campuses, or offering programmes in markets around the world that they perceive to be under- exploited by local universities and business schools. There is an obvious temptation to expand internationally to achieve growth, particularly for business schools operating in domestic markets where growth is stagnant, or government visa and work permit restrictions are impacting negatively on the recruitment of inbound foreign students. To those schools planning to operate overseas campuses, my advice would be this: • Be brutally realistic about the number of students you will be able to recruit to each programme, particularly within the first two years. • Leverage your brand name in regional marketing, especially if you believe it benefits from international student awareness and is regarded as more prestigious than most local schools.
54 Ambition • ISSUE 2 • 2026
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