US Students Increasingly Preferring One Year MBA Programs in Europe

Shorter One Year MBA programs with lower tuitions in Europe are luring U.S. students in droves

An increasing number of students from the United States are heading to Europe for MBA courses in elite institutions like Insead Business School in France and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

The share of US citizens who indicated they would prefer to earn an MBA in Europe rose to 3.2% last year from 2.1% in 2010, says the Wall Street Journal quoting surveys by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). 

The number of applications were 5.1% more than in 2012 at 4.3%, GMAC said.

Students find the European programmes more attractive considering that mostly English is medium of instruction and the duration of the course is only about a year. US full time programmes are usually for two years.

The advantages are lesser amounts spent on tuition fees and lesser time spent away from being part of the regular workforce. Living costs for two-year MBA programs are also a considerable expense which are also mitigated in a one-year MBA programme.

Another factor is the strengthening of the US dollar against the euro in recent months.  Also in an environment where corporate recruiters are seeking people with global exposure, a European MBA is an advantage.

The advantages are lesser amounts spent on tuition fees and lesser time spent away from being part of the regular workforce. Living costs for two-year MBA programs are also a considerable expense which are also mitigated in a one-year MBA programme.

Cost-wise, Tuition and fees at elite American MBA programmes could be around $200,000 while European ones may cost half as much. Some foreign institutions have also sought approval to allow American students to finance their education through USfinancial aid.

WSJ quotes a student, Patrick Lowry as saying reasonable tuition fees of about $30,000 for a 15-month MBA programme at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management was less than half of what he would have paid for a similar programme in the US.

Ten months is an adequate amount of time to get hard skills and leadership skills without having to necessarily completely rethink your career trajectory,” WSJ quoted Belinda Navi, 28,  doing an MBA programme at Insead

A European MBA is also more attractive for US students because of the shorter duration of the course than tuition cost, according to an admissions-consulting firm. Increasingly, students are becoming more reluctant to forgo more than a year’s worth of pay to earn a business degree.

Shorter options were also drawing interest from women aiming for a fulfilling family life and a challenging career, “Ten months is an adequate amount of time to get hard skills and leadership skills without having to necessarily completely rethink your career trajectory,” WSJ quoted Belinda Navi, 28, pursuing an MBA programme at Insead. She plans to return to the videogame industry after the business school’s 10-month programme and hopes to change over from a business-development role into management.

During the 2008-2009 admissions cycle, Saïd received 122 US applications to its MBA program, or 12.4% of total applications. For the class starting this fall, the programme received 189 U.S. applications, constituting 15.7% of its pool.

At the IESE Business School in Barcelona, the share of US applicants in the pool has risen from 13% in 2012 to 16% this cycle, according to the school. The Cambridge Judge Business School in the U.K., and HEC Paris in France, also said they have received more U.S. applications in the past three to five years.

HEC expects U.S. applications to keep rolling in; for the coming cycle, the school said it has received 15% more GMAT scores from Americans than in the previous three years.

With multinational employers placing a premium on a candidate’s global experience, the international nature of a European school’s student population is a draw, too.

International students account for 34% of Harvard Business School’s MBA class and 44% of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business MBA class, while IESE’s MBA class is 80% international, and Saïd has 95% international MBA students. (Source – Wall Street Journal)