Des Dearlove says career mobility is the key benefit of an MBA
MBA graduates are being offered higher bonuses — usually a sign of good times to come — and business school enrolments are rising, so school deans can sleep easier.

According to this year’s career survey from the Association of MBAs, which is published today, base starting salaries, which average £65,600 are down slightly (from £66,500 a year earlier).

On the other hand variable cash earnings, such as stock options and performance-linked bonuses, are slightly up — to £19,000, making the total average package about £85,500. More than a thousand people were surveyed.

In short, MBA graduates are still being well rewarded especially in senior positions. Some sectors continue to be extremely lucrative, such as investment banking, consulting and IT. There is no sign, however, of a return to the lavish joining fees of the 1990s.

The survey, which is sponsored by The Times, found that career mobility remains a key benefit of the MBA qualification, with most graduates moving quickly to more respons-ible posts. The qualification is seen as a key factor for many women to be promoted to senior jobs.

Carl Tams, manager of the association’s intelligence unit, which compiles the research, says: “Surveys such as this indicate that the MBA still provides access to more lucrative careers as well as a wide variety of senior positions in many sectors. The value of the degree appears to continue well into a graduate’s career.”

The survey paints a bright picture for school enrolments.The Graduate Management Admissions Council, which administers the GMAT entry examination, reports that 211,010 people took the test last year, up 3.6 per cent; outside America the number rose 11 per cent to 72,622. Last year many British business schools were braced for falling application levels. That trend now seems to be reversed, with many reporting a significant rise.

The University of Bath School of Management says the number of enrolled students on MBA courses is up 20 per cent. Maggi Preddy, the school’s admissions manager, says this indicates that the market is beginning to recover from the dip it suffered at the start of the decade.

Something approaching normal service has been resumed it seems. Although the full-time market is unlikely to return to the 1990s boom, there is growing optimism.

“Any notion of a crisis in the MBA market is fading fast,” says Matt Symonds, director of QS, the international MBA market research and event company. “There are a number of very positive trends. For one thing, McKinsey (the management consultant) reckons that China needs 75,000 trained managers. There’s unprecedented demand in India, with Latin America and Central Europe starting to re-emerge.”

Strong demand for part-time and distance-learning MBAs is helping the recovery. “The MBA has come through the dip it has suffered in recent years and the future looks bright,” says Lynne Stone at Henley Management College. “The most prominent indicator of its revival is the soaring popularity of the distance-learning MBA. Our two-year modular MBA has also come to the fore.” However, Malcolm Kirkup, director of the full-time MBA at Lancaster, sounds a note of caution. Applications to the school are up 30 per cent, he says, but the overall quality of candidates is disappointing.

“The resurgence of managers interested in getting into senior positions via the MBA is encouraging but, unfortunately, many of them don’t have the necessary experience to meet the entry requirements. We are sticking to our guns to maintain quality.”

QS’s Symonds is more sanguine: “The challenge for business schools is to stay relevant and deliver their message.” The generation now approaching 25 years old, he says, wants “to talk face to face about their commitment to corporate social responsibility, or follow the blogs and podcasts” of former students.

“But as long as they can accommodate them, the top MBA schools are sitting on a bull run for the next six to ten years.”? ? ( Courtesy: timesonline.co.uk )

MCLEAN, Va., May 19 /PRNewswire/ — Newly minted MBAs are commanding significantly heftier salaries in 2006 than their counterparts did last year, with the average business school graduate’s starting base salary topping $92,000, according to new research from the Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®).

Amid a healthy recruiting environment built on strong employer confidence in the economy, the average new MBA with a job offer in hand will earn $92,360 during their first year of employment, up 4.2 percent from the $88,626 graduates in 2005 received. Moreover, two-thirds of job offers to MBAs in 2006 come with signing bonuses that average $17,603, up slightly from last year.

“The MBA continues to demonstrate its strong value proposition,” said David A. Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “In a knowledge economy, leadership and management demand a complex portfolio of skills and talents. A selective MBA program gives its graduate those skills.”

In addition to earning bigger paychecks, more MBAs are finding jobs while still in school, continuing a multiyear upward trend. Fifty-two percent of respondents to the 2006 GMAC Global MBA® Graduate Survey said they had received or accepted a job offer before graduation, compared with 50 percent in 2005, 42 percent in 2004 and 36 percent in 2003.

The survey includes responses from 6,139 students at 147 business schools worldwide. A third of the respondents are citizens of countries other than the United States.

GMAC researchers also found that most MBA students feel their investment in business school was worthwhile. About two-thirds of respondents to the survey rated their degree as an outstanding or excellent value, and another 29 percent said it was a good value. Students revealed that they based their opinions about the value of their MBA on factors such as the quality of the curriculum, their ability to develop key skills and abilities, and the culture of the school they attended. Six percent of participants in the survey said they placed strong emphasis on the potential to increase their financial well- being when assessing their investment in graduate business education.

In addition, the survey found that MBA graduates are, on the whole, interested in the kinds of jobs that employers say they would like to fill. For example, nearly half of respondents said they hoped to land a midlevel position — the type of role for which recruiters say they are most likely to be hiring.

The greatest percentage of students said they are interested in working in the finance/accounting industry, followed by the products/services and consulting sectors. Respondents were least likely to express interest in entering the energy/utilities industry.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (http://www.gmac.com), based in McLean, Va., is a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools worldwide dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education. GMAC annually surveys thousands of corporate recruiters, MBA students and business school alumni to gauge their feelings about the job market and collect other data. The organization also owns the Graduate Management Admission Test® (GMAT®), used by business schools around the world to assess applicants. The GMAT was created in 1954 and remains the first and only standardized test specifically designed for graduate business and management programs. ( Courtesy: biz.yahoo.com )

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The Eller College of Management offers dual-degree MBAs with engineering and agriculture, and more combinations are expected soon

Simone Pollard
University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management

MBA graduates from The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management leave with a combination of business and technical knowledge, says Simone Pollard, associate director of Eller’s MBA programs.

The career-services team assists 200-plus full-time MBA students. Median starting salary for the Class of 2005 was $60,000, with a salary high of $100,000. By graduation, 50% of the class found jobs, and 80% gained employment three months later. Now the program is focused on new dual-degree programs, launched last spring, which allow students to get the business knowhow of an MBA and the technical smarts of a Master’s from the College of Engineering or College of Science, all in just two years.

Pollard has headed both admissions and career services at Eller for one year and is herself the product of a hybrid education. She graduated with a chemical-engineering degree from the University of Virginia and worked as an engineer for Monsanto (MON ) for four years before heading to the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business to earn an MBA. After B-school, she spent three years as a human-resources consultant for Sibson Consulting, then moved into her current position with the Eller MBA program.

Pollard recently talked with BusinessWeek Online reporter Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What are the strengths of your dual-degree program?
We have new dual-degree programs with the university’s engineering and agriculture departments (see BW Online, 1/11/06, “MBAs Who Double Up”). If a student wants to get a Master’s of some kind as well as an MBA, he or she can do that in two years.

Even if you stay technical, you still need to have management experience and business awareness to climb the ladder. The dual-degree program also allows us to tap into a different set of employers, especially in the Southwest, who are looking for strong technical capability.

Are there any more dual-degree programs on the way?
Yes. We hope to launch a dual-degree program with the College of Medicine and the College of Pharmacy in the fall of 2007. These will be accelerated like the other dual-degree programs.

How do you seek strong technical and functional students for these dual-degree programs?
We work closely with the undergraduate departments in the hard sciences, which are really strong departments, and let students know about the MBA program. If a top undergrad has great work experience, we recruit him or her to enter the MBA program right after graduation. We also reach out to local tech companies like IBM (IBM ) and Honeywell (HON ) to find prospective students.

(Full Story at http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/may2006/bs2006059_9485.htm?campaign_id=rss_bschl )

Until not long ago, there was much ado about bright Indian students leaving the country to gain an education and pursue their careers abroad, draining India of her most productive resources. But things seem to be changing now. While the flow of students waiting to gain their higher education in the US or UK has not ebbed, there is definitely an undercurrent developing of Indian students abroad wanting to get back to India.

In a recent, informal study carried out amongst 79 students of Indian origin studying at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business (GSB), more than 84% of the Indian students surveyed were keen to return to India in the near future. About half of the students wanted to return within 5 years of graduation.

To the question on time horizon, Vineet Sekhsaria, a current first-year states “it is no longer a question of if, but when”. Timing the return is always a big question mark. The incentives to return change as people settle into their careers and become more averse to changing geographies.

The trick is to find the right balance. As Sunil Jamdar, a Chicago GSB graduate who returned to set up the Indian subsidiary of a Swiss Bank, advises, “It is always good to get some global experience first, such as in the developed economy of US, and then make a transition to India at a senior level to take on serious responsibilities, the kind of opportunity that may not be available in US.”

Paying heed to this advice, many students have started evaluating their options and establishing links with Indian companies while still in business school. For example, students at Chicago GSB are organizing the Tata India Business Conference on May 6th in Chicago to discuss opportunities in India.

Students are not looking at India for only career opportunities though. Of those surveyed, family was reported as the most important reason to return to India, followed by career opportunity and a sense of belonging. For Ashish Sinha, a GSB alum and now COO of RocSearch, the move to India was a result of multiple reasons including career opportunities and family.

The move back to India he says, “[gives] a lot of personal satisfaction.” Vishal Kapur, a Chicago GSB alum, now working with BCG India recollects that it was a mix of both personal and professional reasons that made him shift back to India “My wife and I are both professionals. (My wife is a lawyer, with a degree from Harvard Law School.) After my son was born, we felt that he would get better care if we lived closer to our family, while the two of us go about our respective ‘aggressive careers’. On the professional front, I wanted to be at the right place at the right time! I truly believe that India has transitioned into a land of opportunities. Liberalization has and is continuing to encourage businesses and I see a success story unfolding each day. It is exciting to be a part of it and to learn from it.”

So how does the work experience in US compare with that in India? Sunil Jamdar offers his view: “Since I worked in both places, experience in India could be frustrating as the processes here are not straightforward, are manipulative and lack professionalism. The biggest challenge used to be to survive the complexities of the age-old system. But I must say with certainty that the geopolitical changes at the macro level and socioeconomic changes at the micro level have brought new energy to the country. People are thinking more globally, more professionally and have become result oriented.”

Yet, poorer quality of life still seems to be a major deterrent for most students who do not want to return to India. The main reason reported by current students for not wanting to move back to India was the better quality of life in the US. As Vishal Kapur suggests to people considering the move back to India, “I would advise them to take a long term view. In the short term, the lack of basic infrastructure can be frustrating.”

More than three-fourths of the students surveyed had lived in the US for over 4 years before joining business school. Moving back to India after spending a number of years abroad may come at a cost. Not having studied at an Indian university may present a hurdle in re-creating a professional network. However, in a work place that values performance and delivery of results, friends can be made easily. Clearly, the lack of a local business school network did not deter Luis Miranda, now President and CEO of IDFC Private Equity. “I came back to India way back in 1989, when it was not fashionable to do so” he says, continuing that “India is home and the opportunities were more exciting.”

Deciding whether to leave the cushy life of the US can be a hard choice to make for many students after their graduation. Leaving lucrative jobs behind and coming back with sizeable student loans can be even harder. But if home is where the heart is, then hopefully we will see more Indian students returning back and helping reverse the brain drain.

(Akshay Sethi is a first-year MBA student at Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago)(Coutesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com)

Joydeep Ray in Ahmedabad | December 07, 2004 09:57 IST

Even though many continue to see GMAT as a must-cross hurdle to gain a career edge, a recent study conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has made a startling revelation — the number of Indian students taking the test has fallen rather alarmingly.

The admission council, which conducts GMAT in partnership with the Executive MBA Council of the US, has revealed a 16 per cent decline in the number of Indian students appearing for the test in 2003-2004 compared with 2002-2003.

The study also indicates that the number may fall by as much as 25 per cent in the next year.

The report is based on feedback from representatives of 352 graduate business programmes and 238 programmes from 143 leading B-schools across the world, mainly from the US, which participated in the survey called ‘Application Trends Survey-2004′.

“Around 16 per cent of the schools surveyed received fewer applications from India, while 25 per cent received less applications from China in 2004 than in 2003. While China tops the list of countries reporting a decline in the number of students taking the GMAT, India comes second followed by South Korea, reporting a 6 per cent decline, much lower than that of India while the US and UK report only a 3 per cent fall,” says the study.

Although the total number of GMAT applicants declined by 4 per cent in 2003-04 compared with 2002-03, it was 16 per cent in India’s case.

The study also reveals that 57,670 non-US students appeared for GMAT in 2003, while in 2004, only 50,629 opted for the test. In 2002, 69,314 non-US students had opted for GMAT.

Interestingly, while the number of Indian students appearing for the test has fallen, the trend is exactly the reverse in the case of the common admission test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

To find a berth in six IIMs and few other leading B-schools in India, the number of students appearing for the CAT has seen a steep rise in the past few years. In 1999, around 70,000 students took the test, while 1,24,500 took the test in 2003 and the number rose to 1,46,000 in 2004.

A source close to the IIM-A, reacting to the GMAC report, said: “One of the main reasons why Indian students are aspiring more for studying in the IIMs or other such schools in India is the cost factor as US B-schools charge much higher fees than the IIMs, and some of them charge even 100 per cent more than the fees charged by B-schools in the European countries. Then there is the case of IIM graduates bagging international jobs with phenomenal salaries and overseas postings. Salaries offered to IIM grads and grads from US B-schools hardly have any difference.”

(Source: Business Standard)

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Dear Achiever,

4/21/2006
Dr. Mayer
Lamar University’s College of Business will sponsor its first master’s in business administration Open House May 1 at the Galloway Business Building in Landes Auditorium.

“It’s for anyone interested in continuing their education, including current professionals who want to advance their business knowledge or career potential,” said Brad Mayer, associate dean for the College of Business. “It is open to students who have studied business as undergraduates and to those who have degrees in other fields of study.”

Students with business degrees can earn MBAs in as few as 16 months. Individuals who have degrees in a field other than business can obtain an MBA in two years, Mayer said.

The open house, at 6 p.m. May 1, is aimed at educating potential graduate students about curriculum changes, including eight-week courses that will begin in the fall, he said. In addition, College of Business faculty and staff will be in attendance to answer questions.

“We’re also offering courses for those that don’t have business degrees,” Mayer said. In about a semester and a half, a non-business graduate can complete his or her prerequisites before starting MBA core classes.

The College of Business is also now offering a leadership certificate, Mayer said. This program, which begins in fall 2006, allows business personnel to take graduate-level management courses and, upon completion of 12 class hours, receive a leadership certification, he said. The leadership courses, which can be completed in two semesters, can be applied toward classes needed to obtain an MBA.

Lamar decided to offer an open house to spread the word about what the College of Business has to offer graduate students, Mayer said. Students can study accounting, health care, service management, accounting, entrepreneurship, financial management and marketing and management information systems at LU, he said.

Overall, courses are more experiential, offering more hands-on learning with real-world application, Mayer said. And, within the past few years, the make-up of students entering graduate studies in the College of Business has become more diverse. Students consists of individuals who are in the work force and have been away from college for some time, others who just completed their undergraduate studies and international students, who add another level of experience to the mix. Many classes, although not all, are team based, where students work in groups to try to solve business problems with help from their professor and fellow students, Mayer said.

Students may also participate in several competitions in 2006, including a businesses plan competition and a competition to determine the viability of an electrical engineering project with judging by faculty and community representatives. “The whole idea is having MBA students network with the community,” Mayer said.

Before entering graduate school, students who have earned bachelors’ degrees must take the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT. The College of Business plans to begin offering the test in the Galloway Business Building for the first time in June. “The GMAT has never been offered at Lamar before,” he said.

Lamar should be licensed to administer the test this summer. The college had to dedicate space, technology, and computers and follow certain testing guidelines before it was allowed to offer the GMAT, Mayer said. “It’s important to make the test accessible,” he said.

For detailed information about the MBA program, leadership certification or the Open House call (409) 880-8604.