More applicants for majority of MBA courses worldwide

India and China are the biggest sources of fluctuation in candidate pools for MBA programmes around the globe.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) said the majority of MBA programmes reported more applications in 2015 than last year and 10 years ago. The council based its findings on data collected from 641 graduate business programmes at 306 universities worldwide. China and India remain the top locations for outreach activities for MBA programmes seeking to recruit international applicants.

In the Asia-Pacific, 90 per cent of MBA programmes in 2015 reported more applications, compared with 55 per cent in 2014. Most MBA programmes in the US and the Asia-Pacific reported more applications than a year ago.

Applications increased for both women and men. About 60 per cent of full-time two-year and 53 per cent of full-time one-year MBA received more applications this year than in 2005."The full-time MBA continues to be a sought after credential because graduates consistently see a high return on their investment." said Bob Alig, the GMAC's executive vice-president for school products.

The share of women MBA applicants increased 3-8 percentage points in 2015 over the last five years for all programme types, with the exception of Master of Accounting.

More than half of the following programme formats reported more applications by women in 2015: full-time two-year MBA (51 per cent), full-time one-year MBA (50 per cent), executive MBA (50 per cent), online MBA (55 per cent), Master in Management (55 per cent), Master of Finance (56 per cent) and Master of Marketing and Communications (60 per cent).