Findings from this year’s Application Trends Survey show that more programs report application growth among women than men.
Over the past five testing years, the total number of GMAT exams taken by women has grown an impressive 12.4 percent, and according to the findings of GMAC’s Application Trends Survey Report 2018 the growth in women’s testing is translating into growing application volumes from women to business school programs around the world.
This is the focus of the November Chart of the Month, which displays the percentage of programs reporting year-on-year application volume growth from men and women. The data is inclusive of all graduate management education program types, and is displayed by program location. The survey findings show that across each world region represented in the survey, a greater share of programs report application growth among women than men, including 66 percent of programs in Asia Pacific, 64 percent of programs in Canada, 58 percent of programs in Europe, and 35 percent of programs in the United States.
While these numbers demonstrate important gains being made by business school programs around the world in growing women’s representation, the findings of the survey also indicate that more work remains to be done. The report details that across all program types, women account for less than half of applications to programs in the United States (45%), Europe (42%), Asia Pacific (42%), and Canada (41%) in the latest admissions cycle. The report also indicates that this remains an area of recruitment focus for many business school programs, as globally about half of programs report having targeted recruitment initiatives for women in 2018, including 64 percent of part-time MBA programs, 58 percent of full-time MBA programs, and 47 percent of online MBA programs.
For more from this year’s Application Trends Survey, download the summary report. For more on women and business school, read our research brief on entrepreneurial women, read our white paper What Women Want: A Blueprint for Change in Business Education, and check out our infographic Women and Business School 2018.