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Among students in their final year of graduate-level business school, the global economic crisis has not diminished the value of a graduate business education. GMAC’s latest Global Management Education Graduate Survey finds that 91 percent of respondents consider their degree an “outstanding” to “good” value.
Participants in the Global Management Education Graduate Survey, formerly known as the Global MBA Graduate Survey, respond to the survey in February and March, a few months before graduation. Survey results offer insights into student opinions of their education and degrees, experience looking for work, and post-graduation plans.
The 2009 survey—GMAC’s 10th annual—found that current economic conditions have made it harder to get job offers, but not yet to the extent of the 2002-2004 downturn. The percentage of graduating MBAs from all programs with job offers was 48 percent in 2009, down from 57 percent in 2008 and 53 percent in 2007, but higher than the MBA classes of 2002 (44 percent), 2003 (36 percent), and 2004 (42 percent). Because employment rates typically continue to fall after recessions end, schools can anticipate the percentage to continue to decline next year.
Job search outcomes differed significantly by industry. For example, more than half of the students seeking jobs in the manufacturing, energy/utilities, and health care industries had job offers, compared with 43 percent of those searching for jobs in finance or accounting, and 39 percent looking in the products/services industry.
Overall, 49 percent of job seekers searching within their country of citizenship or authorized work area had received a job offer, compared with 30 percent of those seeking work outside their country of citizenship. The job outlook has declined dramatically for non-US citizens in full-time MBA programs. In the past year, the percentage of those with job offers at US schools dropped from 61 percent to 40 percent, and for non-US citizens at non-US schools, from 54 percent to 29 percent. By comparison, the percentage of US citizens in full-time MBA programs in the US dropped from 64 percent to 57 percent in the past year.
Salary increases for graduating students in 2009 fell slightly compared with last year, but appeared to outpace the increases received among the graduating class of 2007.
Despite the immediate challenges brought on by the recession, most students felt their graduate business school prepared them to meet the challenges of the economy and labor market. Overall, 83 percent of responding students were “extremely” or “very” satisfied that their graduate business degree had increased their long-term potential by helping them develop the right skills for getting ahead.
The survey results are based on responses from 5,214 students at 203 schools worldwide. Thirty-nine percent of respondents were from countries other than the United States, and 24 percent of respondents attended schools outside the United States. Most respondents (94 percent) were enrolled in MBA programs—38 percent in full-time two-year programs, 19 percent in full-time one-year programs (including all full-time programs of less than two years), 23 percent in part-time programs, 10 percent in executive programs, 5 percent in flexible programs, 4 percent in online/distance learning programs, and 2 percent in joint-degree programs that included an MBA. The 6 percent of non-MBA program respondents were enrolled in other types of master’s of business programs, including finance, accounting, MSc in business, postgraduate, and PhD/DBA programs.
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