An Empirical Comparative Investigation of Operations Management Programmes: Demand, Content and Entrance Criteria within the Context of Internationalization

In higher education institutes (HEIs), Operations Management programmes (OMPs) are among those programmes attracting a substantial amount of international student enrollment. With the current situation that the government is reducing its funding input, the UK HEIs’ financial balance relies more than before on the international students who pay higher tuition fees; meanwhile, with the increased number of the international students, the whole nation’s economy will be indirectly benefited from the increased consumption capacity associated with them. Thus to have more overseas students is not only educationally meaningful but also economically significant. In order to increase the international student number in HEIs, it becomes more critical to have a thorough understanding of the stakeholders’ demand of operations management professionals and preference on such an education programme’s content and its graduates’ competence. This paper focuses on postgraduate level OMP, through comparing viewpoints obtained from stakeholders (potential employers, academics and students) in UK and China, presents an empirical comparative investigation on the demand trend of the graduates from OMPs, as well as the preferred programme content, necessary student capability/skills and admission criteria for joining the study of such a programme.