Both BusinessWeek and Financial Times pointed out this past week that the faltering dollar has created a spike in international MBA applicants. The MBA Tour, a group that organizes top business programs and provides events such as panel discussions and information sessions to applicants, recently reported that the rising currency values in Europe, India, and China is creating more interest in U.S. business schools on the part of foreigners.

“An American 2-year MBA is very attractive to European students now because it’s not all that more expensive than many one-year programs there,” says Craig Hubbell, Associate Director of MBA Admissions, UCLA Anderson School of Management. UCLA Anderson reports a 50% increase in MBA applications from Europe this year, and currency exchange rate is one of the top factors, Hubbell tells MSNBC.

Meanwhile, The Graduate Management Admissions Council, which administers the GMAT, this year saw a 21% increase in registration volume from students outside the US. Many schools have reported significant growth in applications from overseas students.

It seems the competition between MBA programs around the world is starting to really heat up. Back in April, we reported on the growing cache of European business schools.  However, the now not-so-mighty dollar may pull some of those applicants back stateside.

What do you think? Has the economic crunch swayed you away from your dream B-school in the Old World?

The Financial Times offers a comprehensive look this week at financial training programs. European business schools have traditionally run Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) programs, as compared to financially-oriented MBAs in the United States. But new, specialized degrees are on the horizon here and abroad.

According to FT, European business schools have launched, or will launch, nine specialized masters degrees in finance–schools such as Cass Business School and the London School of Economics in the UK and EM Lyon and Edhec in France. IE Business School in Spain and The University of Strathclyde in Scotland are launching programs in 2009.

In the US, Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, Pepperdine and Rochester are launching programs this year. The Anderson school at UCLA will enter the fray with a degree in financial engineering in 2009, the article reports, adding that MIT’s Sloan school of management is also expected to launch a masters in finance degree in the next year.

The growth in demand mirrors the growth in the financial services sector but also reflects a growing demand for technical knowledge, says Sabine Vinck, associate dean of the London Business School Masters in Finance program. “Finance is a specialist industry and it is more and more a technical industry.”

The Haas School’s Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) Program is featured prominently in this special section. “Jobs Outside Wall Street and the City” describes the placement success of Haas MFE graduates. Another article, titled “Global Links Help Talent Pool Flourish,” describes how the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s de facto central bank, created a scholarship initiative to train talented Singaporeans at the Haas MFE program.

The Triangle Business Journal reports that MBA students from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business will match up against business schools from around the world this weekend in a business case competition to address challenges faced by telecommunications companies.

Boston University will host the event, which aims to solve market challenges of converging multimedia technologies. Each team of four students will have 24 hours to build a case, and the winning team will receive $25,000 and the opportunity to present its plan to Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson. A total of 16 universities are participating in this year’s competition.

Hans Vestberg, executive vice president and CFO of Ericsson, says the competition should offer the company key insight into the age demographic shaping telecommunications usage. The students, whose average age is 26, have been raised with technology and its capabilities. “These are the minds that have invented the language we use to describe a connected lifestyle and are the same minds that will lead us into the future,” Vestberg says.

On the Left Coast, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management will engage student leaders around the world with a Global Business Leadership Competition April 10-12, 2008. Outstanding students from top-tier global MBA programs have been invited to represent their respective schools in this three-day competition. The event will provide a forum for students to learn from each other while showcasing and stretching their own leadership skills and interacting with global business leaders and academics.

The GBLC will address the situations and dilemmas that global leaders along any career path may face and will extend beyond a traditional business case to engage student teams in interactive, task-oriented scenarios that simulate leadership challenges. Schools will be ranked for their excellence in the GBLC and prize money will be awarded accordingly, with a first prize of $25,000.