Teaching works—Support matters: Lessons for management education from student evidence

The imperative for management education is clear: graduate professionals equipped for the global stage. Yet, in emerging European academic systems, the scaffolding for employability remains deeply fragmented. Drawing on a dataset of 1669 Romanian university students, this research investigates how pedagogical quality, institutional infrastructure, career guidance, and transversal skill modules jointly inform a student’s belief in their program’s international standing. When universities bridge classroom instruction with active career counseling, or couple solid campus facilities with embedded skill training, student confidence in their European parity is higher. Such paired high ratings correspond to a difference in high-confidence cohorts from a baseline of roughly one-third to nearly half. While students conceptually anchor their academic journey around career services and skill acquisition, their actual belief in the degree’s global value stems from tangible, everyday realities. Stronger local infrastructure and skill provision are associated with lower perceived need to study abroad. • Management students judge program quality through both career-readiness architecture and visible institutional infrastructure. • Career services and transversal skills training anchor how students mentally organize their educational experience. • Faculty responsiveness and functioning facilities are associated with confidence in meeting European management education standards. • Paired high ratings across teaching, career support, and infrastructure correspond to larger differences than single-domain high ratings. • Findings inform management education program design in converging European higher education systems.