UK Immigration News

UK Business Schools Still Attract MBA Applicants

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), administrator of the GMAT test, reveals that there was an increase in the number of MBA applicants from outside the UK in 2011.

According to the GMAC report, 4.49 percent of GMAT takers chose to send their scores to UK business schools in 2011, up from 3.39 percent in 2007. The U.S. is still the favourite choice for MBAs with 77.24 percent of applicants sending their GMAT scores. In comparison with the 2007 survey, the number of applicants for U.S. schools decreased by approximately 5 percent. The UK surpassed Canada to now be the second most attractive country for MBA applicants.

However, GMAC has concerns that the current UK work visa policy may affect enrolments. New UK visa regulations will not permit foreign students to remain in the U.K. for two years after graduation and look for a job. Business school students are exempt from the cap on Tier 2 skilled-workers visas as long as they are hired in school or shortly afterwards, and receive a starting salary offer above £20,000.

Brigitte Nicoulaud, director of MBA programmes at Aston Business School in Birmingham said "While we [the US and UK] were used to having the business education market cornered, we don't anymore".

"My view is that we are looking at the EMBA as the flagship programme [in Europe] . . . and that the full-time MBA will drop considerably," Ms. Nicoulaud added.

John Colley, director of MBA programmes at Nottingham University Business School stated that the business education model would change in the future.

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