A growing number of US students are heading overseas for their MBAs. This leaves me to wonder: is this a sign of the times, a necessary market evolution due to the stress put on America’s businesspeople and their alma maters? Or is it less complex than that and based on the shorter, less expensive programs? More likely, it’s a convenient combination thereof.

It’s a Flat World, After All
Globalization continues to get massive shots in the arm from technology. High speed, wireless Internet access is available everywhere you look lately, making the workplace more an abstraction and less a physical place. The world is getting flatter; i.e., thanks to instant communication, it doesn’t much matter where a company is located around the globe anymore.

Businesspeople are picking up on this. As America’s financial troubles continue, the appeal of foreign programs grows. Have the recent underhanded dealings of US-program graduates left a black mark on our schools? Yes and no. No matter how many business ethics courses anyone takes, it’s the person–not the program–ultimately responsible for all actions. If the general population felt that the schools themselves were responsible for our current issues, we’d be seeing angry, torch-bearing mobs demanding that deans, professors, provosts, and presidents step down. This, luckily, is not the case. Any sort of anti-education fervor is dangerous.

Bailing on Finance
Financial careers have taken a big hit lately, which means that a little diversification is necessary. Students previously focused on careers in finance are looking to work in major industries–like oil, retail, and consumer-goods companies–rather than trying to land careers as investment bankers, who have earned a bit of stigma lately.

Careers in industry require global contacts, which are more readily available when learning overseas, especially in the growing Asian and Middle-Eastern markets. While schools in the US are scrambling to increase the international programs they offer, the fact remains that foreign schools offer shorter, less-expensive programs and stellar networking opportunities.

It seems that America has–at least temporarily–lost the advantage of being the country that everyone has to come to for business. We’re still producing top minds, but they’re going elsewhere for education. Here’s hoping that they come back.