​MBA in crisis? In Singapore, it's less clear-cut

Business schools in the United States may be seeing declines in MBA applications, but the picture in Singapore is less clear-cut.

In a study of 49 US business schools, 38 saw applications fall from 2017 to 2018 - including nine of the top 10 schools. This year, many US MBA (Master of Business Administration) programmes saw declines again, many by double-digit rates, despite near-record starting pay and placement rates for graduates.

In Singapore, with its much smaller MBA market and schools declining to reveal their application or acceptance rates, an overall trend is harder to discern.

 

Four business schools here made the top 50 in The Financial Times' Global MBA Ranking 2019.

Nanyang Technology University's Nanyang Business School, ranked 30th, has seen applications to its full-time MBA programme "on a generally upward trend over the past five years", said its dean Robert Kennedy.

"There is keen competition for the limited places, with an average intake of 90 full-time MBA students yearly over the last five years and an acceptance rate of less than 20 per cent," said Prof Kennedy.

Close to 90 per cent of applicants are international students with diverse professional working experience, "and the strong demand is an indication of NTU's global reputation", he added.

The US MBA decline has been attributed in part to weaker demand from international students, due to uncertainty over work visas and anti-immigration rhetoric - a factor that does not seem to apply in Singapore.

At Singapore Management University's Lee Kong Chian School of Business, MBA intake rose 27 per cent over the last five years. Said its dean Gerard George: "Our recent ranking in the Top 50 within the closely watched FT Global MBA Rankings 2019 has helped our global visibility."

In its MBA class of 2018, about 65 per cent of students are international. Ranked 43rd on the FT list, the programme takes in about 120 full- and part-time students each year. SMU declined to reveal application numbers or acceptance rates.

At international graduate business school Insead - which has campuses in France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi and is ranked third worldwide - Singaporeans accounted for 2.55 per cent of the class of 2019, down from 3.3 per cent for the class of 2015.

"Our quality remains strong both in applicant pool and admits," said Insead associate dean of degree programmes Katy Montgomery, adding that new class numbers are high. Insead has a longstanding policy of not revealing its application figures.

The school aims for a combined January and September intake of 1,000. This year's September intake is 510, with around 500 or more expected in January 2020. Since 2015, intake has ranged from 1,004 to 1,055.

At the National University of Singapore Business School, "application and intake figures remain largely flat across the last five years", said director of graduate studies Nicole Tee.

But NUS Business School has "noticed that the intention set out by applicants and students seeking an MBA has changed", with both groups now more discerning, she added.

The flat trend comes despite the MBA's 17th place in the FT rankings, third in Asia and ahead of Singapore's other autonomous universities.

According to the FT ranking, the average weighted salary for alumni after three years was US$179,661 for Insead, US$153,216 for NUS Business School, US$134,036 for Nanyang Business School, and US$118,415 for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business.

The respective post-MBA salary increases were 104 per cent, 131 per cent, 126 per cent, and 133 per cent. 

However, the NUS MBA does perform worse on the FT's "value for money" ranking, at 32nd. NTU ranks 23rd and SMU 29th, with Insead far ahead in sixth place globally.

This is calculated using salary earned by alumni, course length, fees, and other costs - including the opportunity cost of not working for the course duration. 

For full-time MBA programmes, NUS is the longest at 17 months, compared with 15 months at SMU, 12 months at NTU, and 10 months at Insead.

"The NUS MBA may not be the shortest programme, but there is a good reason for that. We want to ensure there is plenty of time and space for our participants to have an experiential education that facilitates a sound transformation," said Ms Tee.

This includes opportunities for consulting projects, credit-bearing internships and working with startups, as well as international study trips and exchange programmes. 

At least one institution here, however, has moved away from the MBA model. The Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) MBA was launched in 2016, but has ended. 

"A programme review was conducted in 2018 in conjunction with the growing trend towards specialised masters programmes," said Calvin Chan director of the Office of Graduate Studies at SUSS. 

"After extensive consultation with alumni and the industry, it was decided that effort would be directed to develop our specialised masters programmes such as the Master of Finance (Financial Technology) and the Master of Intellectual Property and Innovation Management."

This is in line with a global trend towards specialised master's programmes, added Assoc Prof Chan - a factor that has also been cited in reports about MBA decline in the US.

Source: The Business Times, 21 September 2019