U.S. Reclaims Top Spot for Business Students

The United States is once again the top global study spot for business students — but that could change again, the author of a new study warned.

The U.S. fell behind the United Kingdom as the top destination for business students in the 2022 Business of Branding report from the consulting firm CarringtonCrisp but reclaimed the top position in the 2023 study.

More than 1,900 prospective undergraduate and graduate business students from dozens of countries selected the following locations out of global options:

But the U.S. may not remain the most commonly preferred study location for students. Report author Andrew Crisp told BestColleges a variety of factors could affect students’ choices.

The study was conducted in 2023, and Crisp said international factors like U.K. limitations on dependents from accompanying international students, concerns over job prospects and work in Canada, and early discussions about a now-enacted cap on international students in Australia all factored into the United States’ return to dominance.

“The U.S. was suddenly in a much better position,” Crisp said in an interview.

Now, renewed worries about instability in the U.S. could affect whether the U.S. retains the top spot. Crisp said the approaching election and uncertainty about the candidates’ higher education policies, coupled with on-campus protests, could affect students’ perception of the U.S.

“It’s not always that prospective students know the details of government policy,” Crisp said. “It’s what they read and see. What headlines they see on social media, in traditional media, newspapers, television news. It’s the reporting of policy and the reporting of the noise around policy that is so important.”

Crisp said there’s “enormous uncertainty” about what might happen following the November election.

“Perhaps people don’t know the details of the policies of the two presidential candidates, and, therefore, they see the bigger picture, which is instability, uncertainty, whatever you want to call it,” Crisp said. “And they project that onto the position of higher education.”

Prospective students highlighted the number of high-quality business schools in the U.S., as well as their opportunities after graduation. The U.K., on the other hand, was deemed the most likely to be welcoming to international students.

CarringtonCrisp found similar responses across prospective undergraduate and graduate students.

Cost was a concern when it came to studying in the U.S.: 49% said it’s an expensive place to study, by far the highest margin of any location.

The U.K. took second place for the number of students saying it was an expensive place to study at 41%. Germany is on the rise as a destination for international students, with many students believing it to be a much less expensive location to study than other countries.

When it comes to what prospective students want to see measured in school rankings, employment and return on investment are crucial.

Roughly 30% of students said the number of students employed within six months after graduation was a factor they wanted to see measured in rankings. The number of “high-quality” research papers published was also an important factor, with 29% of students selecting it.

The number of students with an internship, salary increases within a few years of graduation, and employer ratings of a school were also top picks for what students wanted to see measured.

The number and value of scholarships for underprivileged students was another important thing prospective students wanted to see factored into school rankings, with 25% selecting that topic.

“There is a heavy focus on career-related topics in the subjects that students want to see measured in the rankings, and there is also a close alignment with the elements that they indicate are important in their choice of where to study,” the report reads.

“Although career is dominant, students also highlight the quality of research, perhaps using this as an indicator of the overall quality of a business school.”

The focus on real-world experience, jobs, and earnings is no surprise: Business students at all levels regularly prioritize earnings and career prospects when looking for a school.

“I think that they’re very focused on return on investment,” Crisp said. “The motivator for most people to do a business degree, particularly a postgraduate business degree, has been their future career.”

Students also said digital skills like coding, international study opportunities, business startup programs, and real-world experience were important to their business school experience.

A growing proportion of students describe themselves as creative, but fewer are saying they’re analytical. That might reflect student perceptions of technology and what’s needed of them in the modern workforce, Crisp said.

Students are increasingly aware of technologies that can automate mathematical tasks, Crisp said, and they see headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) threatening jobs in analytical fields like accounting.

As with choosing a study destination, perception is everything when it comes to what students consider to be important heading into business school.

Blended learning was the most popular across prospective undergraduate, graduate, and master’s students, mirroring previous CarringtonCrisp findings that students want both the flexibility of online learning and the experience that in-person learning offers.