KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC), a global association of leading graduate business schools has released its anticipated annual 2021 Application Trends Survey.
The survey of nearly 1,000 MBA and business master’s programmes found that in 2021, the volume of applications for graduate business school programmes grew 0.4 per cent from the year before, sustaining the elevated demand since the onset of a global pandemic in 2020 when business schools worldwide saw unusually high volume of applications due to the economic uncertainty.
“Candidates looked for alternative career options during the Covid-induced recession and business schools introduced more flexible admissions policies, resulting in soaring application volumes last year,” said GMAC president and chief executive officer Sangeet Chowfla in a statement.
“The question was whether this was a fleeting event caused by the pandemic or the start of a new uptick in applications. In this context, the 2021 application cycle indicates that the surging demand for graduate business education is not a passing fad but has staying power beyond 2020.”
Among others, key findings have revealed that after years of unwelcoming immigration policies in parts of the world and months of global travel restrictions due to Covid-19, pent-up demand from international students for graduate business schools was evident in this year’s data.
Weighted absolute year-on-year change in application volumes from international candidates shows an increase of 4.1 per cent compared to a decline of 3.8 per cent from domestic candidates, the applicants who are citizens of the country where a programme is located.
The share of full-time two-year MBA programmes showing growth in applications from international candidates has doubled from 28 per cent in 2019 to 57 per cent in 2021.
Full-time MBA programmes continued gaining traction in 2021. Half of full-time one-year (52 per cent) and two-year (56 per cent) MBA programmes report an increase in applications in 2021, above all programmes averaged at 41 per cent.
To learn more, visit www.gmac.com
— Bernama
