Business schools are facing a 10-15% fall in applications for MBA programmes, new figures released by the Financial Times suggest. The paper reports that, of the 16 full-time MBA programmes’ participating in its 2012 rankings, enrolment of overseas students is down 10% on this time last year. The fall is likely to be partly due to the withdrawal of the automatic right for MBA graduates to remain in the UK to work for two years after the end of their course, a change that is part of wider reforms to immigration controls by the government. The Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge said it was braced for a fall in the number of full-time students enrolled on its courses, while Stephen Chadwick, full-time MBA programme director at the top-ranked London Business School, told the FT that applications from the US and India were expected to fall this year. The financial impact of this trend could be severe if it continues, and while there is no data relating to MBA programmes specifically, research by the UK’s Association of Business Schools says that these institutions generate £2 billion for the economy.
But Cranfield University has proved an inspiration for the universities minister, David Willetts, who recently cited it as a possible model for a new breed of university – one dedicated to science and dominated by postgraduates. His vision, which we reported earlier this month, was of new partnerships between universities and business, to set up institutions that would help to make the UK the "best place in the world to do science". Sir John O'Reilly, Cranfield's vice chancellor, says the ideas of boosting science and tapping business potential are good, but that Willetts's proposals are different from the Cranfield model because they carry no government cash. "We get funding – nowhere near the same as traditional universities, but without that it would be a very steep hill to climb".
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