BOA withdraw offers to foreign MBAs

Bank of America has become the first US bank to withdraw job offers made to MBA students graduating from US business schools this summer, citing conditions laid out in its bail-out deal as the reason.

The recently passed $787bn stimulus bill in effect prevents financial institutions that have received money from the government's troubled asset relief programme from applying for H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants if they have recently made US workers redundant.

BofA, which has received a total of $45bn in Tarp funds, is in the process of digesting two large acquisitions - Countrywide, the mortgage broker, and Merrill Lynch - which will see thousands of jobs lost.

A spokesman for the bank said: "Recent changes in legislation made it necessary for Bank of America to rescind job offers it had made to students requiring H-1B sponsorship."

The number of international students affected by the BofA move is thought to be no more than 50 but business schools are concerned that other banks could follow suit.

Traditionally, about a third of MBA students at the leading US schools have taken up finance and banking jobs on graduation, with about a third of those MBAs coming from outside the US.

Some supporters of freer migration have criticised the Tarp measure for threatening to cut the US off from foreign talent and encouraging tit-for-tat retaliation by other countries.

One concern for business school deans is that students who have traditionally studied in the US may go elsewhere. "There might be an inclination for people from around the world to vote with their feet," says David Schmittlein, dean of MIT's Sloan school of management in Boston.

Business Education, Pages 10 & 11

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