CNN.com - Economic growth underpins demand

Demand for MBA and EMBA courses in Asia is strongest from China, India and South Korea.

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FT's Executive MBA Rankings
1. Wharton, U.S.
2. Kellogg, U.S.
3. Chicago GSB, U.S.
4. Stern, NY, U.S.
5. Fuqua, Duke, U.S.
6. Hong Kong UST, China
7. Columbia, U.S.
8. Instituto de Empresa, Spain
9. London Business School, UK
10. Tanaka, Imperial College, UK
Source: Financial Times 2005

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EMBA SNAPSHOT

Executives taking the top EMBA courses in the U.S., Europe and Asia have average salaries of around $130,000 to $200,000.

A typical EMBA student is likely to be aged in the early 30s, with 6-10 years of working experience.

A top EMBA course can cost $100,000. Customized courses start at a few thousand dollars.

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(CNN) -- With half its population of three billion under the age of 25 and the wheels of economic activity gathering pace, Asia is experiencing burgeoning demand for executive education.

Companies based in the region are growing strongly while multinationals are moving to establish or extend their presence.

Both these factors are leading to shortages of skilled and experienced managers.

"Organizations in Asia that are growing aggressively simply can't find the senior executives that they need to underpin their growth," says David Miller, vice president of business development at Duke Corporate Education.

Universities and business schools in the region are responding to the challenge by extending their offerings in open and customized executive education courses.

Offerings include everything from an introduction in management principles to strategic marketing across multiple national borders.

Dean of INSEAD's Asia campus, Hellmut Schutte, says demand is also being driven by the fact that many business leaders do not have an MBA degree and are keen to improve their skill levels.

"If you compared a group of Asian executives with one of similar ages in the United States, the U.S. group would have more MBAs per head," he told CNN. "This is prompting more Asian managers to participate in executive education courses designed for their specific requirements."

INSEAD established its campus in Singapore four years ago and has grown to become the largest provider of graduate business education in the region. Schutte says participants are drawn from around the world, with no more than 50 per cent of any class coming from the Asian region.

"We think this is important because participants learn a tremendous amount from each other," he says. "Having an international mix makes the experience much more beneficial."

Because the costs associated with most courses are borne by the participant's companies, most business schools don't believe the executive education market is particularly price sensitive.

Rather than looking for cheap courses, companies are more focused on ensuring that their staff emerge from the schools with a skill set that will allow them to function at a higher level within the organization.

Associate dean of executive education at the London Business School, Ian Hardie, says business schools around the world are watching the Asian region closely and either establishing their own facility or forging a partnership with a local institution.

"There is no doubt that Asia is very important for future growth," he says. "We already have students coming from China and India to the UK. The question is how close do we need to be to those markets to be effective. We're watching closely."

But while the market for courses is strong at present, Hardie believes future growth will come more from custom than open courses, because many companies perceive them as offering better value for money.

U.S. business schools are also answering the demand from Asia. One example is Stanford Business School, which has forged a partnership with the National University of Singapore.

Stanford's director of executive education program development, Sean Bendarkar, says the school offers a three-week general management program in Singapore which is proving very popular.

"We bring in faculty from Stanford to take the course and it's the only part of the world in which we do this," he says. "The reason is quality. While we do our best, it is tough to maintain a consistent quality because you can't take all our faculty members to other locations."

He says its also tough to replicate the residential facilities available at the school's main campus, which are important for education quality.

Economic growth underpins demand

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