(MBA) MARKETS CLOUD OUTLOOK
 
This month's gyrating share prices on stock exchanges across the globe could end panic through the world of business schools. While students who are graduating in the middle of this year and planning to move into the financial sector will be particularly concerned, business schools themselves will be haunted by the spectre of 2001-2, when recruiters withdrew job offers and applications plummeted.

That said, while turmoil in the stock markets of developed countries is bad news for those who are looking for jobs at the end of their MBA courses, statistics show it can boost applications by those wishing to start courses.

The fortunes of business schools and stock markets are inextricably linked. Unlike university departments of philosophy or literature, which can operate in splendid isolation, the success of a business school relates as much to the current business environment as it does to the quality of teachers and research faculty.

As the Financial Times publishes its 10th global MBA ranking, this correlation is all too apparent. As London has grown as a world financial centre, so has the popularity of British business schools, with students eager to work in the UK on graduation. At London Business School, for example, which is the highest ranked European business school ever this year – it is ranked number two in the world – 69 per cent of graduating students last year took their first permanent job in the UK, even though only 9 per cent of the students were British. The strong pound has also made UK job offers financially competitive for overseas students.

On the other side of the coin, the weak dollar has meant job offers in the US have not carried the expected salary premium for non-US students, even though they can enjoy what are, in effect, cut-price fees.

Also abundantly clear from this year's ranking is the growing number of world-class business schools in Asia, particularly in China. “The rise in volume and quality of Asian business schools is also economically linked,” points out Arnoud De Meyer, director of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. “This is for a very simple reason: the demand for business schools is correlated with [the size of] GDP.”

Prof De Meyer believes the increase in the number of Asian business schools will result in a wave of innovation, just as the rise of the European business school saw innovations such as the development of the one-year MBA programme and the creation of culturally diverse student bodies. “How do you manage in fast-moving economies with limited infrastructure?” asks Prof De Meyer. “People have to be extremely creative in managing when infrastructure is under-developed.” He believes European business schools are changing, too. “We have come out of a time where most of us wanted to emulate the US business schools. I think in the next 10 years we will want to differentiate ourselves and build on our own s

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