These are testing time for the world’s business schools. Corporate cost-cuts mean customised executive education, often the schools’ most lucrative business, is suddenly an unaffordable luxury.

Restricted travel budgets can also preclude trips for on-campus open courses, no matter how short the journey and stay. Schools are being forced to tailor these to more modest budgets. In the US, particularly, market turbulence has shrunk endowments, which means less scholarship and student assistance.