Students From Emerging Markets Are Interested in These Business and Management Programs

In the last three academic years, business and management programs attracted the highest number of international students in both Canada and the UK of any subject. So, it comes as little surprise that Business and Management ranked as the most popular search category on the ApplyBoard Platform in 2022.¹

From accounting to supply chain, institutions offer international students a wealth of options within this category. The stream of business they choose to enroll in helps dictate where their educational journey will take them. In the second edition of our ApplyInsights subject filter mini-series, we’re diving into student preferences within the world of business.

On the ApplyBoard Platform, students have the ability to narrow their searches by a wide range of factors, including subject categories. Within each subject category, there are a host of subcategories students can select and deselect to refine those searches even further.

In an analysis of which subject areas are driving the popularity of business and management, we’ll uncover what subject areas students have been searching for on the ApplyBoard Platform and how those preferences change based on where prospective students live. Let’s get into it.

Business Searches on the ApplyBoard Platform

In 2022, one in three searches on the ApplyBoard Platform were for programs in the business and management category. This made business and management by far the most popular category filter among prospective students last year. Engineering was a distant second, at 23%.

In order to understand the specific study areas driving the popularity of this field of study, let’s break down the subcategories that fuelled student interest in business and management during 2022:

Management and administration lead the way for business programs in 2022, accounting for over 21% of all searches in the category. International business ranked second at 14%, while finance and marketing both saw around 11% of total searches.

The growth of business and management searches stayed fairly linear between 2021 and 2022, with no subcategory increasing or decreasing by more than 2%. Additionally, seven different subcategories saw over 8% of search activity in 2022, with the number one subcategory receiving just 21% of searches.

This points toward long-term, sustainable growth for business and management programs for three main reasons. First, this category has emerged as the most popular field of study for prospective international students. Secondly, that popularity is being driven by multiple subcategories with a significant percentage of students searching for each one. Finally, the year-over-year growth of those subcategories is stagnant, meaning that this theme of multiple-subject popularity looks to be here to stay.

There were nearly 1.6 million unique searches made for business and management programs on the ApplyBoard platform in 2022, and keyword search data suggests that number will continue to grow. The terms business and management ranked as the two most popular search terms on the ApplyBoard Platform in 2022.

But how do students’ interest in specific business and management streams shift based on which country they consider studying in? Let’s take a look.

Exploring Country-Specific Search Trends

Management and administration is the most popular business and management subcategory on the ApplyBoard Platform, but in which destination market is it the most popular? To understand how the popularity of subcategories fluctuates across each of ApplyBoard’s top three destination markets, let’s examine this chart:

Certain subcategories are more popular in some destination markets than others. One of the most interesting findings from this data set is that business and management searches for programs in the UK are top-heavy. 42% of all UK category searches in 2022 were for either management and administration (24.4%) or international business (17.7%). Those two categories accounted for just 34% of business and management searches of programs in Canada.

Earlier this year, we wrote about the success of international graduate-founded businesses in the world’s top education destinations.

While the UK looks to be the premier destination for business and management’s most popular fields of study, Canada maintains a competitive advantage in several other subcategories. Accounting, finance, public relations, and supply chain were all more popular among Canadian searches than searches in the US or the UK.

Looking at searches for the US, entrepreneurship and marketing and advertising were both more popular among this group than Canada or UK searches.

But in order to truly gain value from destination market-specific data, we not only need to understand which subject areas are popular in certain countries, but which cohorts of students they are most popular with.

How Do Student Preferences Differ By Source Market?

Last time we dove into subject filter data for sciences, we were in search of outliers: specific data points that made a certain market stand out due to its interest or disinterest in a particular subcategory.

Today, we’re taking that analysis one step further and breaking it down by destination market. This allows us to understand not only what subject a group of students are interested in, but where they are most interested in pursuing it.

We analyzed the data from Indian, Nigeria, and Bangladeshi searches within the business and management subject filter in 2022. This was done for Canada, the UK, and the US. Then we compared each country’s regional market share of subcategory searches to that of all markets, and ranked them by the largest disparities. Here’s what we found:

There are some really interesting findings here.

International business programs in the UK are more popular among Indian students than any other business and management program is among any other nationality of student.

Management, administration, general programs in both the US and UK are highly sought after by Nigerian and Indian students, but not as much in Canada.

Bangladeshi students are targeting marketing and advertisingprograms in Canada, the UK and the US at a higher rate than any other group of students.

These groups of students are ideal candidates for targeted recruitment efforts. By paying attention to the students that have a particular interest in their country’s programs, institutions can gain the competitive advantage they need to grow and diversify their student base.

Which Students Should Business Programs Recruit to Diversify Their International Student Populations?

For many international recruitment offices today, diversity is king. Institutions are focusing less on international student volume and more on the different nationalities composing their international student body.

To help uncover which markets might fit the bill for these sorts of recruitment efforts, we analyzed the data from the top 10 markets by search volume within the business and management subject filter in 2022 and ranked them by how much they beat the all-market average.

So, which streams of business and management programs are significantly more popular among certain nationalities of student? Let’s find out:

Hospitality and tourism attracted just 8% of total searches in 2022, but among Nepali and Filipino students it ranked as the most searched and second most searched subject, respectively.

Marketing and advertising was more popular among Chinese students than any other nationality of student on the ApplyBoard Platform last year. Nearly one in four Chinese student searches in the business and management category was for marketing and advertising. Colombian students also searched for marketing programs at double the rate of students from all markets.

Accounting, which drew just one out of every 10 searches in business and management last year, was the second most searched subject among students from Nepal at just under 16%.
There is so much information here that helps us understand what fuels student preferences. This data offers insight into how to attract students from diverse markets.

Paying attention to the niche interests of students from emerging, underrepresented source markets can be the difference between identifying as a diverse student population or not. Schools that acknowledge these country-specific trends and create a plan to act on them provide themselves with a chance to lead when it comes to student diversity.

Recruiting With A Strategic Mindset

Data is one of the most valuable tools we have at our disposal. At ApplyBoard, it allows us to get to know our students even better, understanding what makes them tick.

For our partners, it can inspire recruitment efforts and even inform decisions. In order to diversify a student population in a scalable and sustainable way, there needs to be structure to the approach. Data helps provide the foundation for that structure to be built.

By working strategically with our search data, we can tell our partners a lot about what international students from specific countries want to pursue. Understanding not only which subjects are popular, but also which markets they are popular in, tell institutions where the best diversification opportunities lie.

ApplyBoard’s ApplySolutions platform is a great resource for our partners to receive tailored insights specific to their international recruitment goals.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next deep dive into subject filters on the ApplyBoard Platform as we explore the trends of students interested in engineering.

About the ApplyInsights Team

FOOTNOTES:

1. All data courtesy of ApplyBoard, unless otherwise noted.