In recent years, the UK has consistently been named the most popular MBA study destination in Europe, and placed second globally in the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey, with the US first and Canada third.
This reflects UK business schools’ international reputation not only for a rigorous academic approach but for high salaries and excellent job opportunities after graduating. After all London is one of the world’s leading finance and banking centres and other regions of the UK have excellent opportunities in the services industry.
However, the recession has had an impact on the UK’s employment statistics. No major financial powerhouse such as London, with the knock-on effect for the rest of the country, could come out of such a banking-induced crisis without feeling some pain.
Despite this, the UK has shown a great deal of durability. The recession has hurt, and bitten deep. But the UK government, to its credit, has moved swiftly to attempt to ease the problem with various packages introduced by the previous centrist Labour government such as ‘quantitative easing’, designed to stimulate the economy and get the banking industry back on its feet again.
The election of a centre-right Conservative-led coalition government has also proved popular with business leaders. A recent Ipsos-Mori poll in the UK survey suggested that: “A massive 89% of UK business leaders agree that the Coalition government’s policies will improve the state of the British economy. There is also strong support for the Coalition’s cuts program, with 75% saying that the deficit needs to be cut quickly, which increases to 85% of FTSE 350 respondents.”
Regardless of the recession, applications to most top business schools have been positive, with a spike in applications over the last two years. Despite the recent information that recruitment in the banking industry dropped in 2010, it will rebound for MBAs in 2011, while consultancy and general industry have remained surprisingly buoyant in the UK.
Salaries are still very high for MBA graduates, despite the pound weakening against the Euro, and there are still a number of job openings for graduates from UK schools.
With a long-established reputation for hosting top MBA programs, the UK has many of the top 100 business schools in the world including London Business School, Cranfield School of Management, Cambridge Judge, Manchester Business School, Oxford Saïd and Warwick Business School, all of which perform highly in most international rankings.
Trinity in Dublin, in nearby Ireland, and Scottish schools such as Edinburgh and Strathclyde also perform well in rankings.
Why choose an MBA in the UK?
One big clincher for international students to studying an MBA in the UK is the immersion into the English language.
In fact, in 2007 the UK’s business schools taught more MBAs per year than the whole of the rest of Europe put together, according to a British Council research document. Learning, using, and improving skills in the world’s business language is a major draw card for international candidates who choose not to consider the USA.
Vicinity and ease of travel are also a big attraction for European students who do not face the same visa issues as they would in other major Anglophone nations, namely the USA, Canada and Australia. It’s close to home for European candidates for family visits or some much needed time-out, and the cost of inter-European flights can be extremely inexpensive.
It is true that most business courses are taught in English, including those at the top schools in Spain, France, Switzerland and Germany. However, the opportunity for immersion in the world’s business language on a daily basis, as well as the cultural aspects of the language, proves very valuable indeed.
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