GMAC Advisor

With applications on the rise this past year, business schools should not lose sight of keeping their brand top of mind with potential candidates.

International students comprise nearly two in three students enrolled in master’s level business programs at British business schools. As a result, Brexit uncertainties coupled with COVID-19 travel restrictions have been particularly severe for many business schools in the UK as international student mobility faced more disruption. Yet, data shows that demand for pursuing graduate business programs in the UK remains strong among international candidates.

Today it might sometimes seem like there’s more data available than you can handle. With candidate leads coming in from a variety of sources, it can be hard to take the time to search for and make genuine connections with prospective business school students.

A new GMAC research report based on the data collected through mba.com Prospective Students Survey provides insights into the diverse choices and preferences of prospective students planning to pursue graduate management education (GME) in 2021. The findings suggest that demand for GME continues to accelerate as the concerns about the impact of COVID-19 wane. The report identifies at least three notable growth drivers for GME related to employability, flexibility, and regional mobility.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced fundamental change for business schools as learning has moved online, and mobility among candidates, particularly internationally, has shrunk. It has also seen budgets squeezed and resources stretched, with headcounts among marketing and admissions teams falling.

Ask any business student (or anyone for that matter) what the purpose of the corporation is, and they will likely parrot back that it is to “make money for its shareholders.” The prevalence of this belief is coming under much needed scrutiny within business circles and among business students, but it is not gaining enough attention within business education and that needs to change.

Over the years, women are increasingly pursuing graduate business education and assuming management and leadership roles. Findings from the GMAC™ snapshot survey of prospective female students show variations in decision-making processes by program types (MBA vs. business master’s) and study destinations (domestic vs. international). This suggests that sustaining the momentum of enrolling women in graduate management education would require a deeper understanding of their diverse career aspirations and journeys.

Findings from the GMAC snapshot survey of prospective students who are considering business master’s programs show that the journeys of domestic and international candidates vary in the context of pandemic-induced uncertainty. This suggests that business schools need to design data-informed strategies to balance growth in applications with the quality and diversity of enrolled students.

Findings from GMAC™ snapshot survey of prospective students considering full-time MBA programs shows that candidate journeys are shifting in the context of pandemic-induced uncertainty. This suggests that a sustainable future of full-time MBA programs would require business schools to understand the nature and direction of evolving candidate journeys and engage the best-fit, diverse prospects for better enrollment yield.

The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the imperatives of the racial justice movement, have reignited the debate about the use of standardized testing as an admissions instrument for Graduate Management Education (GME) programs.