Colleagues—
It’s hard to believe we’re in the last quarter of the year!
The last two months have brought the unexpected: new program launches, fresh faces on campus and fall recruiting tours; and the expected—Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. We know several of our schools in Texas and Florida were severely impacted by these storms. We have kept you close in thoughts and prayers and have been inspired by your courage and resilience.
My goal in posting 3 to 4 times a year is to ensure schools in the Americas region are current on some of our key initiatives. Christa Johnson, who runs OCP, provided an update last month of our undergraduate outreach efforts. This month, let me give a quick highlight of Immigration Advocacy and Masters.
International Student Immigration Advocacy:
Earlier this summer, we invited U.S. member schools to participate in a survey to guide GMAC's work in student immigration advocacy within the current political administration. Approximately 20% of member schools responded, with the vast majority expressing satisfaction with GMAC's current efforts to keep schools informed about actions of the Administration that may impact their pipelines and programs. There was also strong support for GMAC engaging in direct lobbying with the Executive Branch.
We will continue to update the "Immigration and Visa Policy" page on gmac.com. (Check it out if you haven’t visited. Lots of valuable information there. We also have something similar on mba.com.) We will also continue to partner with the affinity groups identified (ACE, the Council for Global Immigration, AAU and NAFSA) to advocate against barriers for students, faculty and researchers; but instead of focusing on partnership expansions, we will explore opportunities for direct lobbying.
A special “thank you” to all who participated in the survey.
Specialized Masters
Over the last ten years, the growth in specialized masters programs in management related topics has been exponential. As GMAC's mission is to support all graduate management programs (not just the MBA) and the potential talent pool of these programs we have taken a number of steps to better understand the needs, challenges and strategic questions around this segment of the market.
U.S. Focus Group: Earlier this year we hosted a focus group of business school professionals involved in the recruiting, admissions and program administration of "specialized masters' programs" to determine if there are "unique" opportunities for GMAC to provide research, products, services and/or resources. Take-aways from that meeting included a "recipe" for the administrative aspects of a new program launch, research that is digestible and unique to the Masters space and a comprehensive analysis of employer needs.
Masters Advisory Group/Masters Symposium: We also formed a global Masters advisory group who partnered with us to create an inaugural Master's Symposium scheduled for November of this year in Madrid. This Symposium (or "think-tank") will feature roundtable discussions, workshops and panel sessions on topics pertinent to the strategic direction and future growth of this exciting segment of the graduate business education market.
Masters Research: Our Research Communications colleagues have been working hard over the past five months to create a piece that looks at the Masters in/of Management degree by region and globally. Look for that to be published at the end of the year.
I will postpone my notes on the URM For-Profit research we have just completed until my next update. In the meantime, I invite you to connect with me and/or any member of the team to share your thoughts, ideas or pain points.
Best,
Sabrina
Sabrina White, Vice-President, Market Development
Americas & Europe
P.S. As always, if GMAC can assist you, please do not hesitate to contact your Market Development Manager.
Americas Market Development Team