B-School Brain Drain? Another Study Says Yes

Donald Trump may not yet have built his much-ballyhooed wall along the southern United States border, but his election in November 2016 seems to have erected a different kind of barrier: an invisible one that has repulsed international students who might once have considered attending graduate business school in the U.S. That’s a conclusion that is becoming clearer with each new study of the intentions of students in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, the latest of which has just been published by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

GMAC’s one-page report, titled International Candidate Interest in U.S. Business Schools Stays Below Pre-2016 Election Levels, reveals how monthly surveys of non-U.S. citizen registrants at mba.com “show that international candidate preference for the U.S. as their study destination has stayed below the previous five-year average each month since the election, and has most recently declined for three consecutive months between September and November 2017.” What’s driving the decline? Two main factors, both of which are attributable to the anti-immigration rhetoric and stated political mission of the Trump era: B-school candidate concerns around obtaining a job in the U.S. post-graduation, and safety and security fears.

The findings hew to the conclusions of recent reports and mirror the results of other recent surveys. One of these, the 2017 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange reported on by Poets&Quants in November, found the number of new international enrollees in U.S. universities declining for the first time in 12 years, even as the total number of international students has risen.

Source: GMAC

MORE THAN HALF WORRY ABOUT JOBS; NEARLY HALF WORRY ABOUT SAFETY, POLITICS

Pre-election, the five-year average of international candidates preferring to study in the U.S. was 45%. The monthly surveys cited in GMAC’s study show that the preference was at 44% in November 2016, hit a low of 32% in February 2017, recovered through the summer to return to 44%, “but has since declined for three consecutive months,” dropping to 39% in November 2017. Among the 1,992 non-U.S.-citizen candidates surveyed between September and November 2017, 23% had considered applying to a U.S. program but said they now do not plan to apply, reads the report authored by Matt Hazenbush, research communications senior manager.

GMAC says the top reasons given for reconsidering study in the U.S. center around getting a job in-country post-graduation (54%), in addition to concerns about securing a student visa (51%), safety and security fears (47%), the political environment (42%), and racism and discrimination fears (39%).

DON’T MISS STUDY: IN U.S. B-SCHOOLS, INTERNATIONAL STUDENT NUMBERS GO FLAT and APPLICANTS EXPECT TRUMP EFFECT