The number of Asian students enrolled in North American schools is dropping. According to the Council of Graduate Schools in the U.S. there has been a decline in enrollment from countries such as China, India and South Korea since 2006. The Economic Times of India recently reported a 25% reduction of Visa applications from Indian citizens. This reduction was not a result of the difficulty of citizens qualifying for the Visas but rather the reductions in the financial aid packages being offered by American universities to Indian students, decreasing the desire of many of them to apply for Visas. This trend is noticed in other Asian countries as well. Those same countries are developing their own schools equipped with a globalized curriculum and an abundance of potential students. This drain of talent has prompted many North American business schools to develop partnerships with Asia in order to have a hand in shaping the graduate education of this highly competitive candidate pool.

World renowned institutions such as Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and most recently the Schulich School of Business at York University have developed partnerships with their Asian counterparts. But these universities aren’t bringing over their larger program offerings such as the intensive four-year undergraduate program, doctorate programs or the two to three year full time MBA. They are larger programs, more involved and more cost intensive to revamp in order to suit the region. In an effort to avoid heavy startup costs, tough competition from local players, lower fee structures, and extremely severe resource constraints in terms of top-tier faculty they are exporting their Executive MBA (EMBA) programs. The short duration (typically 18 months) and minimal in-class days per month of the EMBA program makes such offering extremely amenable to the various partner regions.

These schools have been early adopters of a shift in management education. Asia currently accounts for more than a quarter of the world’s GDP and is growing at more than double the size of other regions. Within two decades it will constitute almost half of the world’s GDP and be larger than the U.S. and Europe combined. Asia is also becoming more Asian. Intra-Asia trade presently accounts for about 54% of all cross-border trade by Asian countries. By 2025 this figure will be closer to 75%. Importantly, too, the composition of the world’s 500 largest corporations is changing rapidly. In 1995 companies headquartered in China or India accounted for only five of the 500 largest corporations in the world. By 2009 the number had grown to 44. It could easily reach 150 by 2025. Add to this the large number of corporate giants headquartered in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and West Asia, and it is not unlikely that by 2025, half of the world’s 500 largest corporations could be headquartered in Asia. Note also that, in the case of many non-Asian multinationals, Asia accounts for a large and growing proportion of its middle and senior managers’ responsibilities. In short, the global market for management education is rapidly becoming Asia-centric.