Big Trouble In China? CEIBS’ 2023 MBA Median Salary Slips Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

Jobs are not scarce if you’re an MBA graduating from one of China’s premier business schools. But the type of job most China Europe International Business School grads secured in 2023 changed dramatically — and overall salaries have dropped.

CEIBS released its MBA Class of 2023 employment report August 18 showing that technology is not the dominant industry for grads for the first time since before the coronavirus pandemic, with manufacturing taking over the top spot, up an incredible 10 percentage points in one year. Finance was second at 16.5% of the class, and tech slipped into a tie with healthcare for third at 15.4%, down more than 9 points from 2022.

But the most alarming news for those who see China’s business schools as a “canary in the coal mine” for the Asia super-giant’s economy: median salaries for 2023 CEIBS graduates dropped below pre-pandemic levels after surging to new heights just one year ago.

IN ONE YEAR, MEDIAN SALARIES FOR CEIBS MBAs DROPPED 8%

Economic trouble looms in China right now. On Friday (August 25), Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid into a bear market after falling more than 20% from its January peak. The Chinese yuan had a bad week, too, falling to its lowest level since 2007.

Not all is doom and gloom, but for those with a vested interest in the success of China’s leading B-school talent — and its economy as a whole — CEIBS’ employment contains some red flags. Foremost among them: tech took a major tumble as a career destination, dropping to 15.4% of the class from 24.5% in 2022 and more than 30% two years ago. Median tech salaries also fell. Tech had been the top industry for CEIBS MBAs since well before the coronavirus pandemic and in two recovery years after 2020.

What took over as a top industry for CEIBS MBAs in 2023? Manufacturing, which surged to 17.6% of the class from just 7.6% in 2022. Yet CEIBS grads’ median manufacturing salary collapsed from ¥616,600 ($84,571) to ¥500,000 ($68,579), a drop of about 19%. This along with declines in median tech and healthcare salaries — the latter from ¥740,000 ($101,496) to ¥625,500 ($85,792), a drop of about 15% — lowered CEIBS’ overall class median to ¥441,000 ($60,486) from ¥480,000 ($65,835), a one-year decline of more than 8%. Median other guaranteed compensation also declined slightly year-to-year (see table at the bottom of this page).

CEIBS GRADS WORKING ELSEWHERE AMID CHINA’S FLATTENING ECONOMY 

CEIBS, which has a main campus in Shanghai and satellite campuses in Beijing, Shenzhen, Zurich in Switzerland, and Accra in Ghana, was established by the Chinese government and European Union in 1994, with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the EFMD serving as founding executive partners. China’s only business school to originate from government-level collaboration, CEIBS offers MBA, Finance MBA, EMBA, Global EMBA, Hospitality EMBA, DBA (Switzerland), and Executive Education programs. It was the first business school on the Chinese mainland to be accredited by both EQUIS and AACSB.

CEIBS has been the No. 1 MBA program in Asia in The Financial Times‘ global ranking for seven consecutive years, with an overall ranking of 20th in 2023, and has been ranked in the FT’s top 5 for its global EMBA for five consecutive years. Poets&Quants ranked CEIBS’ MBA program 14th in 2023, up from 18th in 2022.

Robust rankings have helped the overwhelming number of CEIBS grads find work, with 95.9% reporting job offers three months after graduation, up slightly from 2022, and 93.8% accepting, same as last year but down slightly from the pre-pandemic MBA Class of 2019. But CEIBS has seen its share of problems since 2020, including controversy over its handling of enrollment and class instruction amid a lengthy China-wide pandemic shutdown, and it may be reverberations from this that caused CEIBS’ MBA class size to shrink for four straight years from a high of 179 in 2019 to just 123 in the Class of 2023 — a drop-off of more than 30%. (CEIBS’ MBA Class of 2024 is just 120 students, but the school’s most recent class is up to 133 students.) In another sign of regional issues impacting the school, employment inside China declined to just 77.7% of CEIBS 2023 grads, down from 84% in 2022 and more than 86% in 2019. Asia-Pacific-bound grads increased in one year by more than 3 percentage points, to 13.1%, and those finding work in Europe or the U.S. jumped to 9.2% of the class from 6% in 2022.

SHIFTS IN ENROLLMENT & JOB TITLES

Amid these uncertainties, other kinds of change have given CEIBS something to brag about. For the first time in the Class of 2023, the school achieved gender parity, with women comprising 50% of that MBA class — up nearly 10 percentage points in one year. CEIBS has been among the leaders in women’s MBA enrollment in China and Asia, with around 40% in the years before and after the pandemic; the most recent class is 47% women. International enrollment, too, took a big leap in the 2023 class, to more than 38% from around 33% in the 2022 class and 28.5% in 2019’s.

This corresponds with a decline in mainland Chinese enrollment at CEIBS, which dropped to 59.1% of the 2023 class from 66.3% in 2022. Increasingly, CEIBS MBA students come from non-business, non-engineering backgrounds: Those with Language & Arts majors in undergrad jumped to nearly 16% of the latest class, up from just 3.8% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the actual roles of CEIBS graduates have shifted, with Manager (36.7%) and Professional (25.3%) continuing to lead but Director surging to more than 10% of the class from 7.1%, and General Manager/Vice General Manager jumping to 5.1% from less than 2% two years ago. Those going into the Leadership Development Program, designed for mid-level management staff with three or more years of managerial experience, declined to 15.2% of the class from 17.2% in 2022; LDP grads had comprised 18.5% of CEIBS MBAs in 2019.

CEIBS MBA EMPLOYMENT 2019-2023

CEIBS	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Job Offers at 3 Months	95.9%	95.6%	96.8%	92.8%	94.9%
Job Acceptances at 3 Months	93.8%	93.8%	95.5%	91.4%	94.3%
Class Size	123	157	172	175	179
Industry	Manufacturing 17.6%, Financial Services 16.5%, Healthcare 15.4%, Tech 15.4%, CPG 7.7%, Consulting 6.6%	Tech 24.5%, Financial Services 22.6%, Healthcare 19.8%, Consulting 11.3%, Manufacturing 7.6%, CPG 3.8%	Tech 30.1%, Healthcare 18.3%, Financial Services 15.1%, Manufacturing 10.3%, Consulting 9.5%, CPG 6.3%	Tech 23.6%, Financial Services 19.7%, Healthcare 13.4%, Manufacturing 13.4%, Consulting 9.4%	Tech 23%, Financial Services 21.6%, Healthcare 12.8%, Manufacturing 11.5%, Consulting 8.1%
Position	Manager 36.7%, Professional 25.3%, Leadership Development Program 15.2%, Director 10.1%, GM/Vice GM 5.1%, Assistant Manager 3.8%, Other 3.8%	Manager 39.4%, Professional 27.3%, Leadership Development Program 17.2%, Director 7.1%, Assistant Manager 3%, Supervisor 1%, Other 5%	Manager 46.2%, Professional 16.2%, Leadership Development Program 16.2%, Assistant Manager 7.7%, Director 6.8%, GM/Vice GM 1.7%, Other 1.8%	NA	Manager 42.5%, Leadership Development Program 18.5%, Professional 18.5%, Director 10.3%, Assistant Manager 4.1%, GM/Vice GM 4.1%, Supervisor 2%
Location of Job	Mainland China 77.7%, Asia Pacific 13.1%, Europe/America 9.2%	Mainland China 84.0%, Asia Pacific 10.0%, Europe/America 6.0%	Mainland China 83.3%, Asia Pacific 13.5%, Europe/America 3.2%	Mainland China 56.5%, Asia Pacific 26.1%, Europe/America 10.6%	Mainland China 86.2%, Asia Pacific 11%, Europe/America 2.8%
Median Base Salary	¥441,000 ($60,481)	¥480,000 ($65,829)	¥420,000 ($57,601)	NA	¥450,000 ($61,715)
Range	¥145,200-¥1,333,228 ($19,913-$182,844)	¥180,000-¥971,000 ($24,656-$133,167)	¥70,000-¥1,400,000 ($9,600-$192,002)	NA	¥107,000-¥1,080,000 ($14,674-$148,116)
Median Other Guaranteed Compensation	¥99,500 ($13,648)	¥100,000 ($13,714)	¥85,800 ($11,767)	NA	¥100,000 ($13,714)
Range	¥12,000-¥600,000 ($1,646-$82,298)	¥7,200-¥350,000 ($987-$48,000)	¥2,000-¥400,000 ($274-$54,858)	NA	¥9,600-¥900,000 ($1,317-$123,430)
Women	50%	40.1%	40.1%	40.0%	40.2%
International Students	38.3%	33.1%	33.1%	31.4%	28.5%
Countries of Origin	21 — Mainland China 59.1%, Hong Kong & Taiwan 2.5%, Asia Pacific 9.2%, Europe 11.7%, America 17.5%	27 — Mainland China 66.3%, Hong Kong & Taiwan 0.6%, Asia Pacific 14%, Europe 9.6%, America 8.9%, Africa 0.6%	23 — Mainland China 62.8%, Hong Kong & Taiwan 4.1%, Asia Pacific 19.2%, America 8.1%, Europe 4.7%, Africa 1.1%	17 — Mainland China 63.4%, Hong Kong & Taiwan 5.1%, Asia Pacific 15.4%, America 10.9%, Europe 5.1%	22 — Mainland China 66.5%, Hong Kong & Taiwan 5.0%, Asia Pacific 16.8%, America 7.2%, Europe 3.9%, Africa 0.6%
Pre-MBA Industries	Financial Services 20%, Tech 14.2%, Manufacturing 11.7%, Consulting 10%, Healthcare 7.5%	Financial Services 19.8%, Manufacturing 16.6%, Tech 13.4%, Consulting 13.4%, Healthcare 5.7%	Financial Services 26.8%, Tech 12.8%, Manufacturing 11.6%, Consulting 10.5%, Healthcare 7%	Financial Services 24%, Tech 16%, Manufacturing 13.7%, Consulting 12%, Healthcare 9.7%	Tech 16.2%, Financial Services 14.5%, Consulting 12.8%, Manufacturing 11.7%, Healthcare 6.7%
Undergrad Majors	Business & Management 42.5%, Science & Engineering 30%, Language & Arts 15.8%, Other 11.7%	Business & Management 46.5%, Science & Engineering 36.3%, Language & Arts 3.8%, Other 13.4%	Business & Management 50%, Science & Engineering 32.6%, Language & Arts 4.6%, Other 12.8%	Business & Management 40%, Science & Engineering 40%, Language & Arts 10.9%, Other 9.1%	Science & Engineering 40.8%, Business & Management 37.4%, Language & Arts 7.3%, Other 14.5%

SOURCE: CEIBS

See CEIBS’ 2023 MBA employment report here.

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