Like every year since 2015, Major-Prep publishes its survey of business school tuition fees. In 2024, one observation: a generalized increase in all business schools, notably explained by inflation, but also the €60,000 mark crossed for the PGE of certain business schools.
Unsurprisingly, tuition fees in business schools are increasing and some exceed the symbolic bar of €60,000, even though the €50,000 mark was crossed only 3 years ago. Despite inflation, increases remain uneven from one school to another: some of them, within the top 10, even show decreases or unchanged prices across the entire PGE.
Business school tuition fees: what has changed in recent years?
Thanks to the data compiled by Major-Prépa, you can see that you have to pay more than €60,000 to study at Les Parisiennes, even if Emlyon is closer to EDHEC. We will also note that Audencia is getting dangerously close to €50,000 this year.
The biggest increase of the year goes to ICN-BS (+12%), which crosses the threshold of €40,000 in tuition fees for the entire Grande École Program.
Despite a year marked by inflation, some business schools have chosen not to increase the tuition fees of their Grande École Program. This is the case for SKEMA and IMT-BS. Note that several business schools, for their part, have not increased their tuition fees by more than €1,000 across the entire PGE, such as Grenoble EM (+€900), EM Strasbourg (+€455) . Two business schools, for their part, have chosen to reduce their tuition fees, this is the case of ESSEC (-€1,112) and Brest BS (€3,500).
Increase in tuition fees: figures to be qualified
After taking stock of the increase in business school tuition fees between 2023 and 2024, it is appropriate to have a more global vision of the generalized increases in recent years. Thus, Audencia shows an increase of less than 3%, but the business school’s EMP had only increased by €350 between 2020 and 2022.
It is easy to see that, apart from a handful of schools which implement generalized increases each year, most post-prep business schools are catching up for the years during which they kept tuition fees at the same level. IMT-BS had also lowered its tuition fees in 2022 to return, in 2023, to the same level as the 2021 school year.
Many business schools have not made any increase in the previous two or three years. SKEMA’s PGE has stagnated around €46,000 since 2021. For its part, emlyon had not touched its tuition fees between 2020 and 2021.
How can we explain the rise in business school tuition fees?
As mentioned, inflation plays a large part in the increases experienced in 2023 and 2024. Business schools had warned, as early as 2022, in our magazine Le Major, that inflation would influence the amount of tuition fees charged at the start of the school year. But why are they affected by this problem? Two factors in particular depend on inflation: costs and salaries. We’ll explain!
To fully understand the impact of inflation on tuition fees, you need to understand how a business school’s budget is divided. Roughly speaking, payroll makes up 50% to 60% of this budget. Costs (water, electricity, building maintenance) represent 5% to 10% while the technological component, a sector which has developed in recent years, corresponds to 8% to 10% of the budget of business schools. The rest, made up of marketing, communication and recruitment, represents 5% to 10%.
Inflation has mechanically increased costs, but also salaries, since there have been numerous pay increases in all companies in recent months. Additionally, schools continue to expand and must fund new hires or new campuses.
Business school recipe: the year of all challenges
Today, it should be noted that the PGE is not very profitable for business schools. Despite exorbitant tuition fees, business schools award numerous scholarships and face many expenses, notably the salaries of researchers. This is why many business schools are developing Executive Education, training courses with prices sometimes exceeding €100,000 and which are more profitable, notably thanks to low infrastructure or teaching staff costs. weaker on these programs.
In addition, the estimated revenue from Grande École Program tuition fees is correlated to the number of students who enter via the preparatory class. However, in recent years, the pool has dried up and business schools have increased the number of places, mechanically reducing the number of candidates who can go to the smaller schools which nevertheless depend much more on these students. This is one of the reasons which explain the opening of parallel paths.
According to information compiled by Major-Prépa, the school which would post the best revenue in 2024 would be NEOMA. With 690 places open via the ECRICOME Prépa competition and a PGE at €49,000 for three years, the school could garner revenues of €33,810,000 in 2024. However, in the middle of this table, you will notice the presence of schools which were not necessarily full last year, like EM Strasbourg. Estimated revenue for the school is €4,845,000 in 2024.
This year will therefore be the year of all the challenges for business schools which are increasing their tuition fees, but will perhaps encounter difficulties in filling them, especially beyond the top 15.
