Doubts damp demand for business courses in the ‘Anglosphere’

{"text":[[{"start":6.88,"text":"Elizabeth Pease’s father graduated from MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1990s. But when it came to choosing where to pursue her masters in management, she looked far beyond US shores."}],[{"start":19.78,"text":"After her first degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, she won a place at Bocconi University in Italy before ultimately enrolling at Singapore’s NUS Business School in 2024."}],[{"start":32,"text":"“Asia is a booming market,” says Pease, who is American. “If you want to be a leader in business, you need exposure to Asian business culture and to know how it works.”"}],[{"start":43.12,"text":"Her decision reflects a broader decline in the appeal of traditional English-speaking study destinations (although it is commonly the language of tuition elsewhere, including at NUS). Overseas applications across all business school programmes plunged 47 per cent in Canada, slipped 5 per cent in the UK and 3 per cent in the US last year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)."}],[{"start":68.36,"text":"Global applications for all courses climbed 11 per cent in continental Europe — the MiM’s traditional home — and soared 42 per cent in east and south-east Asia. The question is whether this is a cyclical shift or a structural one."}],[{"start":83.8,"text":"“I don’t think we’re moving towards a single centre of gravity,” says Andrew Delios, vice-dean of NUS Business School. “We’re moving towards a tri-polar world, with North America, Europe and Asia remaining major centres.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":97.64,"text":"Yet visa and immigration policies, political tensions, inflation and an uncertain labour market have all damped international demand for study in English-speaking countries, says Joy Jones, chief executive of GMAC. She argues that the winners have earned their gains. “Schools in Asia and Europe are not just getting the windfall,” Jones says. “They have been strengthening their reputations. That has created a growing number of credible options.”"}],[{"start":126.12,"text":"Rather than pinning their hopes on a handful of top schools in a few countries, prospective students are now widening their search. “Candidates are hedging their bets a bit more, as there is concern about immigration policy,” says Caroline Diarte Edwards, co-founder of admissions consultancy Fortuna Admissions."}],[{"start":144.6,"text":"Deepayan Roy nearly chose the US for his masters in management, but says uncertainty over visas during the pandemic shut off that option. Europe offered a clearer route to citizenship, so the Indian software engineer enrolled in 2020 at Insead in France."}],[{"start":159.84,"text":"“It was becoming harder to envision a long-term life in the US,” Roy recalls and, looking back, he says later events only vindicated his decision. He now works in Amsterdam for Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":172.84,"text":"The contrast with traditional English-speaking destinations is sharp. Canada saw the steepest drop in international demand across all courses."}],[{"start":181.28,"text":"Canada’s two-year cap on international study permits, introduced in 2024, forced schools to rethink how they recruited students. Although masters students at public universities have been exempt since the start of 2026, the Rotman School of Management in Toronto launched a MiM last year as it overhauled its programme portfolio."}],[{"start":200.88,"text":"“In response to the stresses of international students, we have designed programmes that are attractive to students already in Canada,” says Joseph Milner, interim dean. Rotman’s MiM enrolled its first cohort of 54 students this year, around two-thirds of them domestic, as the school sought to offset weaker overseas recruitment."}],[{"start":219.88,"text":"British business schools are also contending with a tougher policy environment. Applications to Imperial Business School’s MiM in London slipped 2 per cent over the past year, says Darren Meister, vice-dean of education."}],[{"start":232.44,"text":"The UK’s decision to shorten the post-study graduate visa route from two years to 18 months has prompted some international students to think twice, he adds, particularly those from China and India. Greater recruitment from the rest of Europe, Canada and the Middle East has largely offset those losses."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":250.04,"text":"Still, Imperial is steering more students towards a 16-month version of its MiM that includes an internship. The longer option has long existed but had received little promotion. Meister says more candidates are now choosing it, as “it’s getting harder to enter the workforce”."}],[{"start":265.76,"text":"Graduates face many of the same headwinds in the US, where the MiM degree is less well established. At Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, applications to its MiM have also slipped over the past year, says interim dean Laurence Ales. In response, the school has strengthened career support and offers applicants more guidance on visas and job searches."}],[{"start":288.56,"text":"The backdrop is a series of immigration measures introduced by the US, including expanded screening of student visa applicants, stricter social media vetting and new limits on how long foreign students can stay in the US."}],[{"start":301.52,"text":"“Some of what we’re seeing is cyclical and connected to the current administration and its immigration stance,” says Ales. “But 10 years out, countries that are now net importers of education services will start becoming net exporters. It’s the US’s position to lose.”"}],[{"start":317.48,"text":"With international students often paying substantially higher tuition fees than their domestic peers, business schools are opening branch campuses abroad and forging transnational partnerships, exporting education as well as importing students. “For the past 30 years of globalisation, talent has travelled to quality. Now we’re seeing quality travelling to talent,” says Lily Bi, chief executive of business school accreditor AACSB International."}],[{"start":344.578,"text":"Bi argues that international students have become caught up in wider political debates over immigration, despite contributing tens of billions of dollars annually to the economies of major study destinations."}],[{"start":355.88,"text":"Elizabeth Pease has little reason to look back. Two years after graduating top of her class at NUS, she now lives in Vienna and works on international strategy for Rekkie, a US ski smart-tech start-up which was founded by her family."}],[{"start":371.04,"text":"Asked what advice she would give another American considering a MiM today, Pease says: “Look somewhere outside your comfort zone. You’ll learn so much more.”"}],[{"start":382.52,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788768830_9805.mp3"}