For immediate release 30 September 2009
SKILLS NOT SALARIES ARE PRIORITY AS RECESSION HITS MBAs
Two new studies examining how business schools effectively attract students show a clear impact of the current global recession – MBAs are putting skills ahead of salaries and alumni are less likely to give to a financial appeal.
The first study, The Business of Branding, produced by CarringtonCrisp in partnership with the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and the Association of Business Schools, has collected data from 45,000 respondents at 80 business schools in 20 countries since 2004. In previous years, the most important factor motivating full-time MBA students has been a desire to increase earning potential, but in this year’s research more students strongly agreed that their motivation was to gain broader business skills rather than improve their earning potential.
Andrew Crisp, author of The Business of Branding report, comments that “MBAs have recognised that traditional career opportunities in banking and finance with their large salaries have reduced and broader business skills are likely to be more important in securing a good job on graduation."
The study also found that almost as many MBAs strongly agreed that they were motivated by wanting to develop their ability to change careers as those wanting to improve their earning potential. In November, CarringtonCrisp will further examine MBAs views carrying out a study of prospective MBA students worldwide.
Another impact of the recession has been the increase in the number of alumni strongly agreeing that there are no circumstances under which they would support a financial appeal; up from 19% in 2007 to 21% in 2008 and 27% in the 2009 study.
A second study, GenerationWeb, which looks at what makes a great business school website, found that the top three most important pieces of content on a school website were course details, costs (both fees and costs of living) and career information; with fewer than 10% of students making no use of the web when deciding what and where to study.
Although websites are a visual medium, students made it clear that content is king. Andrew Crisp said “Many sites fail visually, with little to distinguish themselves from any other business school site. Around two-thirds have blue as the dominant colour and lead with images of either smiling students or glass-fronted buildings”.
The top two sites in this year’s study were Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and Cass Business School, City University. Cass showed how important copy can be, leading its undergraduate course pages with the powerful line “Behind every brilliant career is the right choice of university and degree”.
The Business of Branding 2009 had 5103 respondents from 105 nationalities. GenerationWeb reviewed 13 business school websites throughout Europe.
The Executive Summary of the Business of Branding is available via this linkhttp://www.efmd.org/index.php/
Copies of both reports are available from CarringtonCrisp by calling +44 20 7229 7373 or on email at info@carringtoncrisp.com
More information is available from:
Andrew Crisp, CarringtonCrisp
by email at andrew@carringtoncrisp.com or by telephone on 07802 875260
Matthew Wood, EFMD
by email at matthew.wood@efmd.org or by telephone on + 32 2 626 9542
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