Every year scores of working professionals (and fresh graduates) apply for the B-Schools around the word for getting better career opportunities and Europe is the destination for many of them. A degree in MBA, which is considered quintessential for a secure and highly rewarding career, has captured the imagination of hundreds of professionals. There are many choices, in terms of location, for pursuing an MBA and Europe offers many very good colleges to acquire an MBA degree.
Europe has always been the center of learning and experiencing new insights for various streams of knowledge. There are few distinct advantages of pursuing your MBA degree from an institute in Europe. Firstly, Europe is a cultural potpourri. You will find people of different cultures and ethnicity and this will help you understand the behavioral traits of almost all of them. One interesting fact is that 61% of MBA students in Europe are not studying in their own country. Secondly, Europe is either the center of leading companies of the world or these companies have a major office. This ensures that internship and later employment opportunities are not hard for a find. Third, there is no dearth of good institutes of high learning in Europe and these institutes have a very robust alumni network. This becomes very important to land the right job for you. Fourthly, immigration, study visa and later work visa are not difficult to get. Many countries have simplified their work visa norms to attract more and more students to their schools and colleges.
A combination of above-stated reasons and many others have motivated thousands of American students to pursue their MBA from Europe. According to the GMAC survey, there is 50% growth in the Americans who want to pursue their MBA in Europe and there has been a surge of close to 25% in the applications received from America. One of the reasons for this shift is strengthening of the dollar in terms of Euro and this makes education cheaper Europe without any compromise in the quality. Moreover, they also get an international exposure which is so important in the current context of the globalized world.
One more important thing that will entice many MBA seekers is that there is a paucity of people from the engineering background in whole Europe. Project Management and Supply Chain Management jobs are in plenty and a combination of engineering degree along with an MBA can boost your chances of landing a highly paid job very high. So, it is a win-win situation for people who want to pursue MBA degree in Europe.
However, there is other another significant aspect of pursuing MBA from Europe. You may have to learn one more language other than English. At the same time for a person like me, I think it is a wonderful thing to learn another language. There are great B-Schools in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries and if you pursue your course there, it is very important to learn the language of the land. Moreover, apart from international exposure, knowledge of another language will boost your chances of employability.
Following is the list of top B-Schools of Europe (Published by The Telegraph)
1. INSEAD (Paris, France)
2. London Business School (London, UK)
3. Said Business School, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK)
4. IESE Business School, University of Navarra (Barcelona & Madrid, Spain)
5. IE Business School (Madrid, Spain)
6. SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy)
7. ESADE Business School (Barcelona, Spain)
8. IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland)
9. HEC Paris MBA (Paris, France)
10. Judge Business School, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK)
There are many more institutes of high learning and there is definitely one which will suit your requirements.
All the best!!!