China's Students Beat Norway's To Top-End MBAs

Norwegian students – together with aspiring young men and women from many other European countries – are being increasingly outmanoeuvred by Chinese and Indian students for admittance to the MBA programs at the best schools in the United States. Only five Norwegians are currently enrolled in one of the top ten business schools recognized as the world's finest by the Financial Times earlier this year.

"I think there are many factors contributing to the falling number of Norwegians attending the prestige schools in the United States. The most important one being that competition for each available spot has gotten much tougher, especially because of students from China and India," says Espen Andersen from the BI Norwegian School of Management.

And Mr. Andersen is seconded by Per-André Marum, one of Norway's leading head hunters and himself an alumnus from one of the finest schools in the U.S: "The competition for admittance to the top American schools is probably tougher than it used to be. And the schools themselves probably target the Asian market a lot more, since that market is a lot more interesting for the Americans than the European one."

Last year over 4,000 fully qualified would-be MBA students applied for a spot at Harvard Business School's Master of Business Administration program. Only 900 were admitted.  

Full story in Norwegian