The process of identifying potential MBA students and encouraging them to submit an application once meant printing glossy brochures, setting up impressive-looking websites and organising a series of events in target markets. But today, schools are turning to a new method of outreach by joining the ranks of users on social networking, blogging and online video websites.

"We've shifted a lot of expenditure from print to online marketing," says Anthea Milnes, recruitment and marketing manager at Oxford University's Saïd Business School. "There's still a mix, but by far the larger portion of our marketing spending now goes on digital marketing."