Business Schools in Germany are Popular Among MBA Students

Thanks to the stable economic situation in the country, German business schools are attracting more and more students.

Germany’s success is reflected in the Graduate Management Admission Council statistics . In 2012, for the first time, the country entered the top ten in terms of the number of applicants to business schools. In addition, more and more Germans are taking the GMAT and are choosing to study in their home country rather than somewhere in the US or Britain.

“People are interested in traveling to Germany because it has a stable economy and an easy immigration process ,” says Nick Barneyville , director of MBA programs at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin.

Barneyville claims that although only 10% of Germans study at ESMT in the MBA program, 60% of graduates remain to work in Germany. He also notes that the university is receiving more and more applications from southern European countries, including Spain. In addition, the number of Executive MBA students has increased by 75% over the past three years thanks to German companies that send their foreign employees to study in Germany to get acquainted with the local culture and build internal connections.

The business school at the University of Mannheim, located in the suburbs of Frankfurt, also boasts an increase in popularity. Since 2009, the number of applications for admission to the MBA course has increased by 30%. More than 70% of graduates remained to work in Germany, despite the fact that only 30% of them are Germans. According to Ralf Buerkl , a spokesman for the University of Mannheim Business School , chemical company BASF and software firm SAP, which are located nearby, are constantly recruiting graduates and sending new students to MBA programs.

Buerkl believes that the Bologna Process, an initiative of the European Commission designed to make European universities no less competitive than higher education institutions on other continents, played a significant role in increasing the influx of students. He is convinced that German business schools have gained a significant advantage by adopting the Bologna system. Thanks to the introduced changes, they began to be in great demand among applicants from all over the world. Most international students come from India and Eastern European countries.

The popularity of German business schools is growing, also due to the activity of students from Germany.

According to GMAC, about 34% of Germans who took the GMAT in 2012 sent their scores to German business schools, down from just 14% in 2008. To meet demand, the business school at the University of Mannheim has introduced a part-time MBA program for local students, which begins in September. Also, with 63% of Germans taking the GMAT before the age of 25 lately, Barnville said ESMT plans to introduce pre-Masters programs.

According to Bürkl, there are quite a lot of job opportunities in Germany: in particular, engineers from all over the world enter business schools. At the same time, students who want to work in the financial sector are more difficult to attract.