In GMAC’s First-Ever Global Report On Diversity, Some Surprising Discoveries

‘The data actually ended up showing that while African Americans represent about 14% of the population that we studied (which is 20 to 34 year olds) they actually hold 17% of graduate management degrees,’ Sangeet Chowfla says. GMAC photo

IN THE U.S., HIGHER-THAN-EXPECTED PARTICIPATION FOR BLACK STUDENTS

While many of the U.S.’s top-ranked B-schools enroll Black students at levels below than their representation in the country overall, when you look at participation in for-profit graduate business school programs, the participation rate is higher.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that enrollment of Black students in American B-schools falls short of their representation in the U.S. population overall. That is certainly true for large state university systems or nonprofit, private universities. Last month, Bloomberg Businessweek released its first ever diversity ranking and compared schools by their enrollments of underrepresented minorities; it found that only two of the top 25 schools enrolled Black students at or above the 14% of Black population in the U.S. overall: Emory University Goizueta Business School and Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech, each with 16% of their student populations identifying as Black.

However, GMAC found that when you widen the lens to include for-profit business schools, Black participation goes up.

“The data actually ended up showing that while African Americans represent about 14% of the population that we studied (which is 20 to 34 year olds), they actually hold 17% of graduate management degrees,” Chowfla says.

‘THEY ARE BUYING THE CATEGORY’

Chowfla says GMAC has previously found that about a third of graduate business degrees granted by for-profit institutions were granted to African Americans. That may explain the gap in conventional wisdom and the most recent report.

In fact, when looked at as a population as a whole, African Americans demonstrate a 3% participation rate in graduate business education, while their White counterparts have a 2.5% participation rate.

“We are used to saying, ‘Well African Americans don’t get business degrees.’ That’s not necessarily true,” Chowfla says. “African Americans aren’t actually getting business degrees from the type of business schools that we are talking about. Quite simply put, they’re not buying what we’re selling, but they are buying the category.”

This table highlights the proportion of the student-aged population (20-34) believed to hold various degrees and the proportion of graduate business degree holders by age group. Source: GMAC

LATIN AMERICA HAS THE HIGHEST BUSINESS CONCENTRATION IN GRADUATE DEGREES

Not all of GMAC’s findings were a surprise. China and India have the highest numbers of both bachelor and graduate degree holders in business and business administration (as well as law). The U.S. is third in both categories.

“Pakistan and Turkey are two other notable inclusions in the top 10 sources, with business grads accounting for 28% and 40% respectively of the country’s total bachelor’s degree-holders,” the report finds.

However, what was a surprise is GMAC’s finding that the highest concentration of master’s degree holders in business (compared to population) is found in Latin America, at 33.1%. Comparatively, the Middle East had 27.6% concentration while East Asia and the Pacific had 26.6%.

“In addition, two countries in the Latin America region have greater than 60% females within the student-age population of 20 to 34 who are assumed to have attained a master’s degree in the subject of business, administration, or law: Colombia (65.6%) and Dominican Republic (64.5%),” the report declares.

Read GMAC’s full report here.

DON’T MISS GMAC DATA SHOWS COMPLICATED PATH FOR WOMEN’S B-SCHOOL ENROLLMENT and WHY YALE SOM IS OPENING ITS DOORS TO MORE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.