As per the findings of a study undertaken by Council of Graduate Schools, application by students of foreign-origin to American graduate schools have gone up by 9 percent over previous year. This recent surge in application is attributed to the double-digit increase in the number of application from the PRC (china).
{The study encompassed 230 institutions and was conducted between January and March. Hence the results must be treated as preliminary as most students tend to apply in more than one institution and the admission cycle was not yet completed.}
When it comes to application from India and South Korea, the growth has once again renewed after being near-flat last year. India, china and South Korea were the three countries to export the largest number of students to USA.
The global downturn has taken a toll on many graduate schools with prospective students unwilling to leave their job for a tryst with full-time education. It is quite understandable, the job market has become very competitive and thus their decision seems wise. But the growing applications of students in foreign institutions may dispel the notion of a yet another bad hair day for them.
On the upscale, the recent news coming out of top-tier management institutes in India seems to downplay the slowdown in the real-economy. The fat pay packages being offered to IIM graduates exude the aura of hunky dory. Although the enrolment numbers have dipped significantly in the past few years, according to a report in the Times of India, with fewer number of student taking the coveted CAT examination. And in few cases the enrolments have dipped as high as 50 percent. Pundits are of the view that the uncertainty in the economy has made the applicants-especially engineers- vary of pursuing management studies. This group comprises the largest number of application thus uneasiness within them is sure to affect the enrolment numbers.
While there may be disconnect between the global scenario and that in India, it can be attributed to the Pride-sentiment. No matter how shaky the economic prospect is, anything with a label of made-in-west is sure to command currency. Many people may take offense to such articulation as being a hang-over of our colonial past. Being delusional never provided any solutions but being objective certainly did.
An average engineering graduate, in current time may not see a significant increase in his salary on the account of his management degree and therefore the money-motivation is less. On the other hand, student who is focused on creating a future in management will continue to pursue it regardless.
In all these, the byliner crowd who pursued MBA and other elite courses for its style-quotient are the ones who have fled the scene. Most people have realised that a fancy MBA from a top-tier education institutes is neither easy nor cheap.
Again, it cannot be ascertained with considerable surety that the MBA has lost its sheen or is on its way back to its glory of the past. As the nailing-data for it is not available however, one can draw conclusions from the registrations for CAT, MAT etc. In the current academic year, many institutions have lowered their guard when it came to selection criteria in order to keep their bottom line above the red. The enrolments in top-rungs IIMs are unaffected by any of the extraneous factors because together between them they hold only 1.5% of the total available seats in the country. Hence, any new development in this space must be approached with a bit of scepticism.
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