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Is the balance of power for business education now shifting in the Gulf States? As the traditional destination for aspiring MBA students in the last thirty years, US schools such as Harvard, Wharton and Tuck could rely upon a steady stream of applicants from the Middle East each year, with little competition from elsewhere.

However, as the global market for business education has grown, top schools from all over the world – particularly from Europe and Canada, have challenged this dominance. Recent figures from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) show that interest from Middle Eastern citizens in business schools in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands increased by 87% in the last five years - more than double their US counterparts. Leading European institutions now devote considerable recruiting time and resource in the Emirates, hoping to attract a growing pool of local talent intent upon gaining a formal business education. So what are GCC professionals looking for?

Mishal Alghuneim, from Saudi Arabia, studied for his MBA at leading Spanish business school ESADE in Barcelona, and says that he decided to do an MBA to diversify in his career, “After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer, I worked as a field engineer in the oil & gas industry in Saudi Arabia. For a period of about two and a half years I was working in a very technical industry that did not allow me to develop the business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit I desired.”

But, despite initially being interested in studying in his home region, Alghuneim knew that to gain a well-respected qualification, he would have to look elsewhere. “I knew of no MBA program offered in the GCC that had a prestigious global reputation. By contrast, Europe offered many options that could compete with the top names from the U.S.”

It is the same story for Muhammad Ghazali Alvi. Having grown up in Dubai he decided to study at the Cass Business School in London. “I wanted to do the MBA internationally. In London, the level and quality of global exposure available is superior, and one of my main goals was to build a truly international network of contacts and alumni. This may not have been as achievable had I studied in the GCC.”

Despite the growing prominence of European business schools, the US remains the top choice for students from the Emirates, with GMAC figures showing that 44.6 per cent of citizens from the region applied to a U.S. school when making their applications. For many, the brand name schools in the States still provide the added gravitas that will help them when it comes to their job-hunt. Saleh Al-Ateeqi, a corporate strategy manager at Boubyan bank in Kuwait, studied for his MBA at The Wharton School in Philadelphia. In the banking profession Al-Ateeqi feels the US schools still offer the best fit. “I completed my undergraduate studies at Georgetown University and felt the U.S. schools focus aligned best with my needs as a banking professional. In addition, American business schools are towards the top of most rankings, something that is often decisive when companies look at which applicants to hire.”

But beyond where they studied, a point of real concern for businesses in the GCC is whether these local students return to the Gulf to work? Al-Ateeqi says “When I decided to go to business school abroad, the GCC was going through a difficult period with slow growth and an uncertain outlook. By the time I had finished, the region was starting to boom again. The removal of Saddam from power provided a boost to the GCC economies and international companies started setting up offices in the region, which led to an offer of a job with McKinsey in their new Middle East office.”

Other students have also returned to the Emirates having completed their studies abroad. Lobna Fakhro gained her MBA from HEC Paris, having initially worked for a Bahraini banking institution. “I realised shortly after starting my MBA programme that that I was interested in the field of Economic Development, and shortly after graduating I joined the Economic Development Board of Bahrain as a Senior Analyst. The vision of the EDB is to create a friendly environment for businesses wishing to set-up in Bahrain, and the MBA from HEC provided me with the tools to take the opportunity when it arose.” Fakhro insists that getting an MBA in France made a difference to her next career steps. “Such an international programme at HEC Paris gave me a diverse alumni network, which I have used on many occasions for job search. Studying in a multi-cultural environment also helped in that I am more able to overlook cultural barriers when working in an international field such as economic development.

So it looks as though business students from the Gulf will continue to prioritise Europe and the US as study destinations of choice for the foreseeable future - while schools in the region play catch up. And with recent reports from the Saudi American Bank Group and consulting firm AT Kearney predicting a bumper year in the region for industries such as banking, oil & gas, there seems to be every incentive for them to return.

Matt Symonds is founder of SymondsGSB and a guest lecturer at business schools. You can follow more of his business education coverage on his blog at http://symondsgsb.wordpress.com