The epicentre of the world seems to be shifting towards Asia, and this has been more visible post the 1000 days of the pandemic. Asia looks to be on course to 50 percent of global GDP by 2040 and 40% of the world consumption as per Mckinsey. This century seems to belong to Asia because of the falling in line from consumption-driven economies to manufacturing for the world, and the upward trajectory is too clear not to be noticed. So, the need is to look to the educational institutions, especially business and technology, and how they will be able to match the best of the west in providing skills and knowledge to support the capacity needed for these burgeoning economies of Asia. Some factors that favour the reasons why one should study business in Asia are analysed:
- Economical
Business studies have been a preferred educational domain of the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but it is an expensive bet for an international student. The Covid and recession thereafter in the west has increased the risks of studying high-value courses with a risk of little or no return on investment. Moreover, the number of Asian students in the US, UK and Australia is very high and a great income source for the preferred educational institutions. After taking a beating of losing a number of residential students, these institutions have tried to rationalise the fee structure by setting up campuses in Singapore, Hongkong and other such destinations closer home to the students so that they are more economical.
The advantage that Asia has is that by learning from these institutions, we were able to customise institutions to our needs and provide quality business education to students of the region at a more economical fee, making it a lucrative destination for students with lower affordability outside Asia too.
- Future Geopolitical and Business Scenario
The world’s business structures have seen a more resilient Asia led by China, India, Japan and Korea, taking the world by storm. In this scenario, the silver lining is that with growing economies, the potential for business growth is higher vis a vis the saturated or peaked economies. Once the growth potential is higher, more jobs will be on offer, hence the need for better-equipped business management institutions with specialisations to suit the economies. With this fresh perspective, when the Asian giants are flexing their muscles in the US and the rest of the world, the business education of the Asian region is also bound to rise exponentially.
- Resilience
Many experts subscribed to the view that the Asian bubble might burst, but over time a conservative approach by Asian economies led by India and Japan has shown the world that the economies are more structurally resilient to be able to withstand the vagaries of nature or for scaling up. Even in the current scenario, many of the developed countries are going through some of the worst phases of recession, but India and Japan have done extremely well to thwart these recessive tendencies in their countries. This resilience shows that Asia is ready for the next leap of faith, thereby tilting the centre of gravity in their favour.
- Future businesses
Even at the expense of sounding competitively biased, Asia has reinvented itself to be more innovative and develop new age businesses, which earlier were the stranglehold of the US and Europe. The west also capitalised on cutting-edge technology from Japan. But now China, Korea and India have joined Japan, and the large numbers of youth in India coupled with the Startup India, Digital India and National Education Policy have created a new lot of young entrepreneurs who have learnt the art of expansion faster than their manufacturing predecessors. The digital age seems to be working in favour of Asia, especially India, with 65% of the demography below the age of 35, which is bound to reap rich dividends in future.
- Scale
India and China’s population is a major chunk of the world population, and Asia in total accounts for 59.76% of the world population as per UN estimates. The rapid growth of youth in this region is one reason why the world job markets and economies look towards Asia for manpower and also consumption. The CEOs of the largest companies in the US and Europe also hail from Asia, motivating the youth to take to higher studies in the business domain. Singapore and Hongkong have been flourishing in business education, and now it has started spreading all over Asia, and the numbers support them.
