The Great Indian MBA Craze

Bangalore: The full-time MBA programme and its other alternatives are back in demand globally after three years of decreasing application numbers. Specialized MBA courses for undergraduate students and those with less than a year's work experience are also in demand, reports Hemali Chhapia for Times of India.

In 2001-2002, when there was a slowdown in the global economy, applications to MBA programs increased, says the 13th annual application trends survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), owner of the GMAT exam. As the global economy improved, programs reported a decrease in the number of applications received, with full-time MBA programs going worse in 2004 and 2005. However part-time and executive MBA programs fared better, as students were able to keep working while completing their course work.

With the most recent global recession in late 2007 and 2008, unemployment rates grew and application volumes for full-time MBA programs once again began to go up, peaking in 2009. For the past three years of a sluggish economic recovery, full-time MBA programs reported a decreasing application growth.

But this year, all MBA programme formats saw an increase in the percentage of programs reporting growth in comparison with findings from 2011, says the GMAC report. In 2012, women report for 39 percent of the applicant pool for the full-time two-year MBA, up from 35 percent in 2011. But the biggest change was seen among applicants to the executive MBA course. 37 percent of executive MBA applicants were women in 2012, in contrast to 2011 when women accounted for only 27 percent of executive MBA applicants. This year, women make up more than 40 percent of applicants for all the MBA courses.