A new study shows that programs in the fields of business and management maintained their popularity throughout the first nine months of 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, attracting one out of five students searching for study abroad courses.
It shows the UK, Canada, Germany and US were the top destinations for students seeking to study in various disciplines in the programs, followed by six other European countries. Interestingly the programs were not popular with indigenous students in the top 10 destinations.
The research by student advisory company Studyportals, part of a series of reports covering the latest developments in student interest worldwide, showed that programs in the field were largely popular in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America and to some extent Europe.
These include Morocco and Ghana as well as Nigeria in Africa, and Vietnam in South East Asia. In Europe, English-taught programs in business and management resonated best with students in France, Austria and Switzerland.
“This means that if you are targeting these countries with your program, you are most likely heading in the right direction,” said Jacopo Gutterer, analytics consultant at the company.
“The Americas are not top-of mind when it comes to finding promising source countries”
“However the Americas are not top-of mind when it comes to finding promising source countries. Here the best chances to find students for programs in business and management are in countries that combine large populations with medium-to-high interest such as Mexico, Colombia, or Brazil, despite a stronger interest coming from other minor markets,” he added.
Gutterer explained that one possible reason for the popularity of the studies was because of the “expected value” of a degree in the field.
Since studying abroad is often constrained by visa and budget, students were probably looking at studying something with a clear “return on their investment” in terms of time, effort, and money.
“This can partly explain why business and management is much more popular where incomes are relatively low,” he told The PIE News.
“Social attainment may also influence the prospective choice: the appeal of seeing yourself as a successful entrepreneur, or working for some dynamic company is higher than for example than seeing yourself as a biologist, an engineer, or a sociologist.”
The availability of study programs he noted is often linked to what students wanted to study. The popularity of business and management field as such is driven not only by large number of programs available, but also by a pool of international students actively seeking their next study option abroad.
The study revealed that the number of programs offered on non-full-time basis in the field studies is higher than the global average for other fields.
“As the interest remained stable during the pandemic, such programs are a safe bet as a mainstay within a university portfolio. We can further see that business and management is more popular on master level than a bachelors level,” it further noted.
