According to a new survey by Stacy Blackman Consulting, an admission consulting firm, more than 80 per cent of MBA applicants believe that Trump's immigration policies will reduce diversity of US business schools. Foreign students in particular are looking for new options, worrying about their visa status and immigration policies in the U.S. and UK.
Nearly 11 per cent of UK business schools have reported a decline in EU student applications because of Brexit, according to the Chartered Association of Business Schools. A similar picture emerges from the U.S. where half of the business schools have seen a decline in applications from international students, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which administers one of the entry exams to business school.
“Brexit is a huge opportunity for us,” Nick Barniville, associate dean of degree programmes at ESMT Berlin told TopMBA, the QS World MBA Tour’s platform. “Current political events might prompt people to consider study destinations outside of the U.S. or the UK. We have seen an exceptional increase in applications this year, by over 100 per cent to our Masters in Management programme and increases in applications to our MBA programme, too.”
Other German business schools report a similar trend with increasing applications from foreign countries. GMAC reports that the number of GMAT test-takers who send their results to German business schools has tripled in five years.
The MBA platform names some distinct advantages of German business schools which are not as highly ranked compared to other European and US competitors as salaries in Germany tend to be lower with less MBA graduates going into finance and consulting:
Multinationals and SMEs hire MBAs in Germany with up to 250,000 new jobs being created yearly in the SME sector.
Tuition is considerably lower than in the US or UK.
Immigration policies are attractive for highly qualified business people.
Another winner of the anti-global stance of the UK and the U.S. might be France, according to Matt Symonds, Director of Fortuna Admissions. “Macron has this vision of innovation and entrepreneurship”, Symonds told the online platform European CEO. “He’s in his late 30s, he’s smart, he’s got that sort of international aura – we might look to his open call for U.S. climate change scientists to come to France. Universities and business schools in France will enjoy a wave of popularity on the back of that international message that he sends.”
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