Exeter Business School to Cut International Students: MBA News

With reports surfacing that the University of Exeter Business School is to reduce the number of its international students, other UK institutions are bound to be casting a watchful eye over their own international student figures in case a precedent is about to be set.

It appears that Exeter Business School has taken the move after realizing that its proportion of international students, (recognized as non-EU domiciles in this instance), had reached 54% - well in advance of the 45% figure that had been agreed with the university as a whole.

However, discussions surrounding Exeter’s cut centered more on ensuring international students held the same academic merits as those from the EU, rather than simply to reduce numbers for the sake of quotas. Therefore, in all likelihood, this move will affect undergraduates far more than those at MBA level where admissions are eminently more rigorous.

Warwick Business School highlights MBAs in dismissing any suggestion of international student cuts

Indeed, in a statement to The Times, Warwick Business School went as far as to rubbish suggestions that they might reconsider their own international student numbers, arguing that it was more likely to increase further. It even cited their MBA student population as evidence that international student numbers were not a concern because MBAs traditionally attract a global intake.

Still, Exeter Business School’s move will undoubtedly spark a wider debate about higher education in the UK in general. In a list compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the University of Exeter’s total international student proportion was recorded as being 21.7%, placing it behind as many as 21 other UK institutions.

The top six in the table all register more than 30% non-EU students and are mostly based in the capital city, London. The very highest in the table is the London Business School, the second highest ranked business school in Europe according to the latest QS Global 200 Business Schools Report. The school’s 58.4% of international students is clearly swelled by its prestige amongst MBA applicants and, of course, leading business schools’ global intake is not something that is about to change anytime soon.

• The University of Exeter Business School recently joined a long list of global business schools in collaborating with IBM to help produce MBA graduates who are comfortable with modern technology. Read more on that topic here.

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