Graduate business education: profiling successful students and its relevance for marketing and recruitment policy in higher education

New postgraduate business programs were introduced at an Australian university in the period 1999-2001. These programs were made available to students from business and non-business education backgrounds with non-business students being required to complete a preliminary program. The academic performance of students in the postgraduate programs was assessed to determine whether students from a non-business background and required to complete a preliminary program achieved grades that were at the same level as those achieved by students with a business background. The outcome of this analysis is relevant for assessing the decision to open postgraduate business programs to non-business students and for assessing the effectiveness of the preliminary program as a means of preparing non-business entrants for a postgraduate business degree. More generally, there is merit in profiling successful postgraduate students for the determination of marketing and recruitment policy based on the premise that a university prefers to enrol students with a high chance of superior academic success. Therefore, other variables besides academic background that could be relevant to postgraduate success were examined as well. These variables were English proficiency, gender, age and country of origin. This study of 1,049 graduates from the years 2004 and 2005 found that students from a non-business education background who completed a preliminary program performed as well in the postgraduate program as students from a business background admitted directly into the postgraduate program. English proficiency was found to be significantly associated with academic achievement. There is some evidence that age and country of origin are also associated with academic performance. Gender, however, was found not to be related to academic performance.