An International Education

In some ways, it appears a dark cloud has hovered over U.S. business schools. Some business students have begun to question whether the United States is still the gold standard in business education. Business educators around the United States, and in Minnesota, have felt the effects on many levels.

Though U.S. citizens still overwhelmingly choose to study at home, last year about 4,500 people, or 1.5 percent of Americans who took the GMAT, sent their scores to schools outside the country, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. Wilson considers this number significant.

“People have become more global in their outlook,” Wilson says, noting that there are now quality business programs offered around the world. “In 2006, prospective MBA students have many good options outside of the United States.”

MBA Worldview

The United States—the birthplace of the MBA—still leads the world in business education, with more business schools and MBA students than the rest of the world combined. But foreign business education and MBA programs at schools in France, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Australia, among other nations, have gained reputation and resources, and top U.S. business schools now have significant competition overseas.

INSEAD, a graduate business school based in Fontainebleau, France, is a good example of the international competition, says Michael Houston, associate dean of international programs at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. INSEAD, which has a sister campus in Singapore and a resources partnership with Wharton in Philadelphia, has 144 faculty members, 870 MBA students, and 71 PhD students, according to the school’s Web site. In all, students and faculty come from more than 75 countries, and INSEAD calls itself “one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools.”

Among other international schools, Houston notes the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, ESADE in Barcelona, and Costa Rica’s Incae Business School as foreign schools that have increased enrollment in the past five years. “And this is just the start,” Houston says.

In addition, a large percentage of students from Germany, Greece, China, Pakistan, France, and Canada now look beyond the United States for their MBA, Wilson says. Interest among Western Europeans in studying in the United States decreased dramatically from 2000 to 2004, with only 47 percent of the European test-takers sending their GMAT scores to U.S. schools in 2004, compared to 60 percent in 2000.

“Foreign schools have recognized a growing interest throughout the world for business education outside of the United States,” Houston says. “And many of the schools have increased their efforts to market themselves to these potential students.”