Asian M.B.A. Schools Rise in Esteem for Employers When Regula Lina Müller wanted to pursue an M.B.A. after seven years of working in venture capital in Switzerland, she did not choose a top-ranked business school in Europe or one of the prestigious behemoths in the United States. She instead went farther afield — to Hong Kong. Ms. Müller’s employer, the Elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization, a Zurich investment fund focusing on sustainable development, granted her a leave of absence and guaranteed her job would be there when she came back. Ms. Müller evaluated well-ranked universities and agreed with her employer that she needed to focus on a top-tier program. “If you’re a lawyer or a doctor, your title is secured,” she said. “An M.B.A. isn’t like that. It matters how high the school is ranked. Ms. Müller studied global university rankings and eventually narrowed her choices to Northwestern University, Stanford University, Babson College and a school in Singapore. She concluded that many of the M.B.A. programs were pretty similar. Ultimately, Ms. Müller said traditional American universities were not as appealing to her as Asian programs, so she chose the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for its focus on Asia and its proximity to China, which she said was “the salt in the soup.” Over the past few years, Asian universities have steadily moved up the global rankings — as illustrated in the latest edition of a listing that focuses on the overall “employability” of graduates in the global economy, compiled by the French consulting firm Emerging and the German research group Trendence. And with more foreign schools offering full programs in English, the lingua franca of international business, students like Ms. Müller are increasingly pursuing advanced degrees in far-flung places. The fourth annual Emerging-Trendence Global Employability Ranking organizes the world’s top 150 universities according to surveys of 2,500 international recruiters in 20 countries, with the most responses coming from the United States, China, Japan and Britain. While other lists, like the Shanghai Ranking, focus on the quality of a university’s academics and research, the Emerging-Trendence study, a copy of which was provided to The International New York Times, rates institutions based on recruiters’ opinions of how attractive graduates are to potential employers. Even though recruiters agreed that the American schools produced the best “ready for work” graduates, the United States and Britain are no longer the go-to bastions of higher education for English-speaking students. The University of Tokyo, the highest-ranking Asian university in the survey for example, held its number 10 spot this year just ahead of Columbia University, which dropped from 7 to 11. Continuing the trend in last year’s listing, institutions in Asia rose again in the esteem of employers this year to occupy 20 percent of the Emerging-Trendence ranking. That is double the region’s presence on the list when the first report was issued in 2011. Chinese universities climbed an average of five spots and added two new schools to claim a total of seven places. The Emerging-Trendence list put Ms. Müller’s school, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, at No. 16 this year, up two spots from 2013. British and American universities ceded 3 percent of the ladder this year, though the usual leaders, like Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford and Yale, continued to dominate the list. Though premier schools kept their spots, several medium-size American universities slid the rankings. The University of Southern California lost 17 places, and Purdue University dropped from 96 to 131. However, European institutions with longstanding reputations like the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland, and Bocconi University, in Milan, held steady, even making gains. “Higher education is a global market,” said Laurent Dupasquier, managing partner at Emerging. “The location is becoming less and less important.” This year, the Emerging-Trendence study added a layer to the survey and turned its focus to recruiters’ vision of the “university of tomorrow.” More than 60 percent of participants believed that universities would create a more global model in the future. Companies needed to be more involved in universities, which could lead to a blending of academics and the demands of the marketplace. About 40 percent of respondents suggested that institutions offer practical workshops with professionals. Other ideas included courses that focused on “soft skills” and programs developed by businesses themselves. Shirley Jackson, a top global recruiter at the consulting firm EY, said these “soft skills” — essentially personality and social traits — were key to landing internships and jobs. Ms. Jackson said she also considered candidates’ interests outside of academics — sports, volunteer work, school organizations — from which she gleaned their ability to work in a team, lead and adapt socially. Ms. Jackson said EY tracked which employees performed well and made a note of their schools for future recruiting. In Italy, for example, about 40 percent of employees hired by EY had attended Bocconi University, she said. Now back at the Elea Foundation, Ms. Müller said the diversity of the students she worked with in Hong Kong had broadened her perspective on international business and forced her to rethink how she conducted herself. Ms. Müller said that the foundation had grown and that with her M.B.A., she now felt more confident in handling new management tasks. Going to school in Hong Kong for 15 months also allowed Ms. Müller to develop a new network with fellow graduate students and professionals in the region, where she said her company’s business ties were the weakest. “Our generation is very globalized,” she said. “Eventually you have to put cultural dos and don’ts aside and function as a team to get the work done.”
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 05:00:31 +0000
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