US-Schools: Foreign Demand Drops

In Asia the demand for business education grew by 75 percent between 2005 and 2009, compared with 25 percent in Europe, 30 percent in North America, and 43 percent in the Middle East and Africa. Latin America saw an increase of 18 percent. Those percentages are based on the numbers of students who took the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which is required for most of the world's top MBA programs.

The number of students taking the admissions test reached a record of 265,613 this year, which is an increase of  7.6 percent compared to last year. For the first time, more than half of the test-takers were not from the United States. At the same time the proportion of test scores sent by foreign citizens to programs at US-schools continued to fall - 59 percent this year. In 2008 the share of foreign applications was still at  65 percent and even 75 percent in 2000.

Foreign students who previously flocked to the United States are possibly discouraged by the weak economy, worse job prospects, and restrictions on work visas. An increasing number of very good business schools outside the US is adding to it.

www.gmac.com