Nation at a glance: Australia

Beaches, a relaxed lifestyle and an economy in its 22nd consecutive year of unbroken growth make Australia a sought-after work place. This is also mirrored in its MBA offering that has seen an increase in popularity in recent years. The most recent QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey mounted the country to one of the most popular destinations worldwide.

Picture: Lupo /pixelio.de
Picture: Lupo /pixelio.de

Australia was ranked 5th – just behind France, Canada, the UK and the US. According to the survey the country is most popular with students from the Asia Pacific region, but it also has achieved international reputation in some of the renowned rankings. The Financial Times ranked the Australian Graduate School of Business as Australia’s best business school at number 48 worldwide and Melbourne Business School at number 62. The Economist placed the University of Queensland in its top 15 and two other Australian institutions amongst its top 100.

Australia’s education has a good reputation abroad and amongst other benefits, graduates of Australian business schools are known to receive excellent remuneration. According to the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report the Macquarie University’s Graduate School of Management leads the way even globally, with its graduates earning average salary packages of US$144,000.

Whilst most of the more well-known programmes are either in Melbourne (State: Victoria), Sydney (State: NSW) or Brisbane (Queensland), Queensland in particular has raised the game in recent years. This year, five of Australia’s top 10 MBA programmes were from Queensland universities according to the local ranking in the Financial Review, catapulting the so called sun-shine state into a leading role in business education, something which was reserved to only Melbourne and Sydney before. The University of Queensland Business School even pushed the renowned Melbourne Business School from first position in this ranking.

The programme’s newly found success is mainly due to flexible offerings, a good student and alumni community and the global internship which selects the best students for a project that is conducted together with students from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The student group works on a live case analysis of a business problem by a real company and later has to present a solution to the company’s executives.

But it’s not only a better profile and offering that made Queensland’s business schools successful. Another reason for the high demand is the resources sector that dominates the state’s economy. Plenty of engineers and technical staff felt the need to make the transition to being managers and needed MBAs to teach them the necessary business knowledge.

Today, it is no wonder that Australia is the most popular MBA country in the Asia Pacific region as local demand, a high-quality education with good offerings, high remuneration of graduates and a respectable international standing all contribute to the rise of Australian business schools.

http://www.afr.com/p/national/education/queensland_beats_melbourne_to_offer_qqYlQG2uOqyKsZ0owMygBL

http://www.afr.com/p/australia_only_mba_rankings_3hWteRkPQzbCeKZ4D6moRL

www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/two-aussie-mbas-make-top-100/story-e6frgcjx-1226563414882

www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/queensland-agsm-top-mba-rankings/story-e6frgcjx-1226738531777

www.afr.com/p/boss/the_mba_landscape_which_course_to_TiVArn05k8EA2rxnWZSMHM

www.topmba.com/why-mba/where-get-mba-top-10-study-destinations

Full ranking

 

http://www.afr.com/p/boss/boss_mba_ranking_the_table_3ADFi8K8AnTSJEi6O9HvyH

Barbara Barkhausen