The Global MBA Graduate Survey is a product of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a global nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools and the owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).

The GMAT exam is an important part of the admissions process for more than 4,000 graduate management programs around the world. GMAC is dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education; these schools and others rely on the Council as the premier provider of reliable data about the graduate management education industry.

INTRODUCTION
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has conducted the Global MBA Graduate Survey annually for nine years. Graduate business school students in their final year at participating business schools receive the survey a few months before graduation.

The survey allows students to express their opinions about their education, the value of their degrees, and what they intend to do with their degrees after graduation, among other topics.

GMAC also ascertains some post-graduation employment information through the survey, though not a complete picture; many of the survey respondents are not yet involved in job searches at the time of the survey.

Key Findings
• Schools are meeting the expectations of students and students are learning the skills they had hoped to develop in the program. Thus, the overall value of a graduate business degree remains high and the value proposition for business schools is positive.

• The main drivers of overall value are the school’s ability to meet student expectations and the quality of the curriculum. In addition, quality of the faculty, program management, and student skill development are key drivers of overall value. These intrinsic and systematic values drive overall value while extrinsic values, such as increases in salary and job level, do not play a significant role.

• There is a strong correlation between a graduate’s propensity to recommend their school and their rating of overall value. In 2008, 63% of business school graduates would definitely recommend their school and 28% would probably recommend their school.

• Even in the midst of the world credit crisis, a greater percentage of job seekers had received or accepted an offer of employment at the time of the 2008 survey compared with job seekers the previous six years.

• Salary expectations among graduates continue to rise compared with previous years. Full-time MBA graduates expect a 67% increase.

Visit Global MBA Graduate Survey Website

Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

1600 Tysons Boulevard
Suite 1400
McLean, Virginia 22102
USA

Download Global MBA Graduate Survey 2008

PDF format, 752KB, 28Pages.

CONTENTS
2 Introduction
2 Key Findings
4 t he value proposition
5 Student Expectations
7 Development of Knowledge and Skills
9 Overall Value
10 The Graduat e Business Program 10 Quality of the Program
13 School Culture
15 School Recommendation
16 Job Searches and Salary Expectations 16 Job Search
18 Career Changes and Industry of Employment
21 Expected Changes in Salary
24 Concluding Note
24 Contact Information
24 Authorship
24 Acknowledgements
25 The GMAC Survey Series

THE GMAC SURVEY SERIES

The Global MBA Graduate Survey is one in a series of five annual or biannual surveys produced by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

The surveys are designed to explore relevant issues, offering data at various depths, depending on the desire of the user and the participation of the school. Survey reports provide an overview of the data in addition to giving context for and implications of the research. They are frequently used to help drive strategic decision-making processes in graduate business schools. All survey reports are available on the Web (www.gmac.com/surveys). Print copies (while supplies last) are free upon request from the GMAC Research and Development department, research@gmac.com.

Other surveys include—

mba.com Registrants Survey
Who is in the pipeline for a degree? What makes them decide to apply now or wait? Launched in 2003, this annual survey tells who prospective students are (including detailed profiles), how and why they move through the pipeline, and what motivates them and gets their attention.

Application Trends Survey
How does a school’s application volume compare with that of other schools? Since 1999, this annual survey has gathered comparative application data for the current and previous year from business school programs worldwide.

Corporate Recruiters Survey
Who hires MBAs and why? What are the hiring plans in various industries? How do companies decide where to recruit? Launched in 2001–2002, this annual survey helps schools better understand the job market, clarify employer expectations, and benchmark their career services practices.

Employers use the survey results to benchmark the MBA recruitment activities of their companies.

MBA Alumni Perspectives Survey
What happens to MBAs after they graduate and begin to evaluate the value of their degrees? Launched in 2001, these biannual surveys follow MBA graduates long-term to understand their career progression, their expectations, their attitudes about work, their assessment of their education, and general market trends.

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