Global MBA gender balance is possible in 2011

Female applicants outnumber male in Western Europe.

February 8th, London

According to the latest QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2010, the global percentage of females looking to study for an MBA has risen from 35% in 2006 to 48% in 2010. Although globally, male applicants still outnumber females, this figure is as close to parity as it has ever been.

Surprisingly in Western Europe, females represent 54% of respondents; suggesting the future of business in the Western Europe to be female dominated.

Reponses were received from 3,895 of the 68,000 applicants around the world who registered for the QS World MBA Tour last year. The table below demonstrates the gradual narrowing of the MBA gender gap from 2006-2010


Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS attributes this robust trend to the growing ambitions of young business women around the world.

“Over the last five years, the QS TopMBA Applicant Research has revealed a steady increase in the number of women seeking to take an MBA. In most countries around the world, women are achieving better academic grades than their male counterparts and therefore have the confidence they will be able to gain entry to top schools.”

In Switzerland these trends are very apparent. Quacquarelli adds, “Women are ambitious, well-educated and seek to have a successful career independent of their family lives.”

Currently women in Switzerland make up only 6.6 % * of board members. With the EU planning to introduce quotas forcing companies to fill at least 20% of their top jobs with women in the private sector. Business schools around the world are seeing the number of women on their MBA programs increase year-on-year.

IMD Business School, Switzerland, saw its MBA applications from women hit a record high, from 23% in 2010 to 28% in 2011.

Kara Keenan, Associate Director of Admissions, Marketing & Financial Aid at the INSEAD MBA Program says, “Through marketing specifically to women and offering scholarships targeted at women only, the gender gap is definitely narrowing; the percentage of women currently enrolled in the MBA program at INSEAD is 33% - a number which has grown steadily over the last decade.”

The next QS World MBA Tour arrives in Geneva on 9th March 2011, offers over $1.2 million worth of scholarships with many targeted specifically towards women. Candidates are advised to register before the event on www.topmba.com

* Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, Women on boards: Why not?

- QS World MBA Tour
The QS World MBA Tour is the world’s largest series of recruitment and information fairs for business school applicants. In 2010, over 60,000 MBA candidates registered to visit 85 events in 66 cities in 42 countries.

The QS World MBA Tour offers a unique opportunity to meet admissions officers of the world's most influential business schools at venues around the world. Now in its seventeenth year, the Tour will consist of 83 events across 42 countries over five continents during 2011.

- QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2010
The QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2010 is the largest survey of the mindset and aspirations of MBA applicants ever conducted. The results provide detailed insight into the status, attitudes, goals and ambitions of MBA applicant worldwide and how they, and the employment and education markets for young professionals, are changing.

QS is the world’s leading information specialist in the higher education sector. QS mission is to enable motivated people to fulfil their potential by fostering educational achievement, international mobility and career development. Through our exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, we link undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers.

Our communities include: QS TopUniversities.com, QS TopGradSchool.com QS TopMBA.com, QS Global Workplace.com.

The QS team of over 140 individuals from the four corners of the world represent the experience and goals of the achievers we aim to assist. They include internationally recognised experts in the higher and business education arena.
QS operates globally from offices in London, Paris, Stuttgart, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington DC, Boston, and Johannesburg.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited
1 Tranley Mews
Fleet Road
London NW3 2DG
UK

Contact information:
Name: Joanna Lagache
Title: Marketing & Communications Manager
Email: Joanna@qs.com
Tel:02072847283

Press Contact:
Name: Vicky Chiu
Title: PR Manager
Tel.: +44 (0)20 7284 7292
Email: vickie.chiu@qs.com

This release was published on openPR.