Going by the latest Financial Times MBA Rankings, UK Business Schools have fared poorly in the Global MBA ranking. Although London Business School, Judge, Oxford Saïd, Warwick Business School, Manchester Business School, Cranfield School of Management, Cass and Imperial College Business School are featured in the top 50 list, the drop in ranking is evident.
Apart from Warwick Business School, which had one of the worst years in 2011, not a single Business Schools has broken the 2011 rankings. In fact, most schools have dropped in ranking except for Imperial College Business School, Manchester Business School and Judge Business School.
Since the data collection takes place a year before the ranking, we examined the GDP growth from March 2010 to Dec 2012, and there is a correlation with the economy and the drop in ranking.
Source: tradingeconomics.com
Schools that have adopted a strategy to help International MBA Students with funding and post-MBA support were the only ones who were able to reverse this trend in a stagnant Economy
Why Placement of International Students is so important?
Most Schools in UK have a large international contingent with some of the top schools recruiting more than 80% from outside EU. On the surface, the strategy seems to be right: increasing diversity and exposing participants to experiences from economies that will lead in the future but the problem arises when return on investment is calculated.
Cost of MBA – UK
Although the cost of MBA programs are 70-80% of that of US programs, considering the 1-Year format and lower tuition fee per year, the post-MBA jobs trends in UK is impacting the International participation in the programs.
Poor Funding Support
In 2011, NatWest terminated the partnership with AMBA (Association of MBAs) for UK only MBA loans. This was a big blow for International students, forcing them to fetch for themselves or get support from select few like Prodigy Finance. The perceived risk of UK Economy is elevated with poor funding support.
UK Border Agency Visa
Another factor that is affecting the prospects for International MBA students is the UK Borden Agency Visa. The visa restricts the post-MBA job search. This official release from UK Border Agency has indicated that from April 2012, Tier1 Visa will be closed. With Tier 1 Visa, students had the opportunity to stay in UK for 2 year after their graduation.
However, non-EU students can switch to Tier 2 Visa with the following condition:
1) Those graduating from a UK university with a recognised degree, PGCE, or PGDE will be able to switch into Tier 2.
2) There will not be a limit on these switchers
By switching to Tier 2 Visa, non-EU students have to find placement within 6 months of graduation, before their Visa expires. The risk however is that 90% employment within 3-months of graduation that top Business Schools claim to have achieved over the years cannot be guaranteed in 2013, not at least in a sector that the International students had planned before joining the program. As in 2013 Q1, UK is heading towards a triple digit dip in growth with the economy shrinking by 3.3 % from Q1 2008, one of the worst
performances from any developed economies.
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