It certainly looks as if this could be the case as many top schools in the region are experiencing a boom in applications. aOur application volumes are up in a classic counter-cyclical way,a says Jennifer George, Associate Dean of Academic Programs at Melbourne Business School. aThey have risen thirty percent on previous years, in just the same way as they did when we went through the last economic downturn in 2001. People start to want to improve their skill level in a tighter market or decide to invest their redundancy pay-out in an MBA.a
The counter-cyclical idea is based on the observation that business schools do well in times of economic difficulty as people attempt to take shelter from the downturn while simultaneously preparing themselves to be best placed when the upturn comes. Whatas different about the situation in the Asia-Pacific region is that the economies and employment opportunities are continuing to boom.
aWe have definitely received more applications from people coming from North America,a says Lawrence Chan, Director of Marketing and Student Recruiting for MBA Programs at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. aPeople with decent jobs, some of whom may originally have been from Asia, are coming here because they see the opportunities in this part of the world. For our part, we are really pleased with the employment opportunities taken up by our 2008 cohort, many of whom have achieved their employment goals, while some of our 2009 graduates have already received offers.a
aFirms in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Singapore continue to hire strongly and activity has gone up compared to three years ago,a agrees Professor Chris Adam, Postgraduate Programs Director at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) within The University of New South Wales. aIt is the people who are going back to Europe or North America who are seeing see a cooling of the market.a
Credibility
But studying in Asia Pacific is about far more than placing yourself at the center of an economic boom. Obtaining an MBA in the region is becoming increasingly attractive as people realize they can get a top-ranked business education for a fraction of the cost while also developing their networks in a part of the world that has become an economic powerhouse.
Karen Ma is Head of MBA Marketing and Admissions at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). aWe have noticed that interest in Asian business schools has increased from all over the world in the past few years and particularly in the last year,a she says. aOur own rise in applications is partly due to this general interest and partly due to our performance in the rankings. Applicants realize that they can get the same high-quality education at HKUST, very often at a portion of the cost of US or European programs. Most importantly, candidates now see more opportunities here and want to develop their careers in Asia afterwards. Going to an Asian school to learn about Asian business and develop regional networks becomes an obvious choice.a
HKUST and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) have both leapt into the magic top twenty of the Financial Times (FT) ranking of Global MBAs in the last couple of years. And a look back at the FT rankings since 2000 shows how these and other Asia Pacific schools have broken through to become globally significant. The Indian School of Business, Shanghai Jiao Tongas Antai College of Economics and Management, Nanyang Business School, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have all made appearances in the rankings in the last few years.
The QS list of Global Top 100 Business Schools tells an identical story, with the number of Asia Pacific schools included leaping from ten to 23 between 2006 and 2007. Furthermore, when you compare the top ten in the QS list with the FT rankings from the past two years, it becomes evident that four key cities account for the vast majority of the well-regarded schools: Shanghai, with its central position in the Chinese economic book; Hong Kong, with its mature, UK-influenced economy and access to China; multicultural Singapore with its infrastructure, governance and position in the center of the region; and Sydney, with its cosmopolitan atmosphere, financial center and post-Olympic exposure. It is no surprise then that both Insead and the University of Chicago have located their Asian campuses in Singapore while the Asian branch of the University of Ontarioas Richard Ivey School of Business is to be found in Hong Kong.
Regional trends
Schools in all these cities are to varying degrees offering their students access to and an understanding of the economic powerhouses of China and India. And one of the characteristics they have in common is the emphasis they place on providing their students with the opportunity to take part in exchange programs, so allowing them to experience a semester in a part of the region they want to learn more about. AGSM for example has 26 exchange programs to choose from.
Maintaining the diversity of the cohort is another common concern for the top schools. aOur broad aim is to create a highly multicultural education and to produce global managers who can manage cross-cultural teams,a says Lawrence Chan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. aWe have students from sixteen countries coming to us and 80 percent or our students come from outside Hong Kong. Even the part-time program now attracts foreigners.a
Another counter-intuitive trend is the increasing importance of the specialist MBA in the region. Many will remember consultancy giant McKinseyas famous 2005 claim that China would need 75,000 more leaders and managers in the next ten to fifteen years. And it is well known that much of the demand for MBAs from India comes from people who have specialized in technical subjects such as IT, finance or engineering and who now to wish to broaden their skills. Nevertheless, there is now a strong demand for MBA programs that themselves are tailored to a particular area.
aWe are seeing more of a demand for specialization,a says Associate Professor Susanna Leong, Vice-Dean for Graduate Studies at NUS Business School. aThis is something we have tried to resist for quite a long time, but students do want it and so we now have specialisms in healthcare, real estate, finance, marketing and strategy & organization. Another demand-led trend is a move away from the traditional two-year program towards something that can be completed in a year.a
One major difference between the Asia-Pacific and the North American or European experience is that people in Asia are less likely to be sponsored by their company, even for part-time or Executive MBA programs, perhaps because the workforce is much more mobile and the sponsoring organization is less likely to recoup the benefits. Non full-time programs in places such as Hong Kong will therefore be designed to avoid the necessity for participants to take any time off work.
Source: www.TopMBA.com