MBA Rankings

MBA rankings For postgraduate students seeking a UK or European business school at which to study an MBA, it can be difficult to know how best to select a suitable one, but with savvy use of the plentiful information on offer it can be a straightforward and rewarding process. Since the predecessor to the MBA, the MSc in Commerce, was introduced in 1900 and the first MBA established in 1908, the number of MBA courses has proliferated, and hence a number of rankings systems have been developed to assist in assessing their quality.

In the same ways as other business-program rankings, or indeed any other postgraduate subject rankings, MBA rankings are undertaken by various publications around the world, and many will assess the MBA courses offered internationally, not just those local to the publisher. Well-reputed British publications providing MBA rankings include the Financial Times and The Economist, whilst in the US the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Forbes are leading providers. Methodology utilised in the rankings varies between publications, however, most base a proportion of scores on core criteria such as salary statistics and student demographics. Additional criteria used by publishers may include GMAT scores, employment statistics and data relating to members of the school or faculty.

How is the information obtained?

Information used in the rankings programs is generally obtained through surveys of school representatives, students, alumni and recruiters, although there are publishers who use entirely different ranking methodologies, such as Quacquarelli Symonds, whose scores result from an average of points periodically assigned to MBA graduates by their employers over a two-year period. MBA rankings can provide essential particulars that should be considered when choosing a business school, but it is imperative that they are used with caution and in combination with other data.

Pros & cons of MBA rankings

Whilst MBA rankings are clearly an essential tool for prospective students, as with other ‘league tables’ there are pros and cons to using such information to select a school. MBA rankings can provide at-a-glance data covering important factors like the career progress of alumni, making it quick and easy to compare business schools. However, criticisms of MBA rankings include the possibility of bias, exclusion of some schools, lack of assessment of different MBA courses offered within the same school and contradictions between different publishers’ rankings of the same school. Critics also highlight flaws in statistical methodology, for instance those that rely on subjective interviews.

With the issue of potential bias, it is easy to understand how this could lessen the accuracy of rankings, but others may be harder to assess. Rankings that exclude certain schools means that the results will not be providing a fair comparison between all available MBA courses, and may mean that excellent schools are excluded from prospective students’ selection processes. Similarly, where publishers focus on schools themselves rather than the MBA courses offered, data might not correctly represent those schools that provide more than one MBA course.

How should you interpret MBA rankings?

So, with such a minefield of conflicting and potentially erroneous information, what is the best way of interpreting MBA rankings in order to obtain the most accurate and relevant statistics? Due to the way that MBA rankings are drawn up by independent publishers, it will always be difficult to verify their objectivity, therefore it should first be established how a particular publisher compiles their rankings. Check which demographics have contributed to which criteria but also investigate how the contributions are weighted. For example, the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking might seem to have an emphasis on information obtained from school representatives because schools contribute to 11 criteria while alumni contribute to eight, however, schools’ answers are only weighted at 31% with those of the alumni being weighted at 59%.

A few publications offer the functionality of being able to filter their rankings according to individual criteria, enabling the viewing of data according to salary alone, GMAT scores alone and so on. This means that prospective students can assess schools based on the most important criteria to them, although limitations in the methodologies used still impair accuracy. There are also publications that summarise and compare the rankings of numerous publishers - another useful tool to help decipher the mass of available information. Ultimately though, with these tools mainly having been implemented only by US publishers, prospective students in the UK and Europe may have to undertake their own research and comparisons in order to best address their personal interests and requirements.

How should you use MBA rankings effectively?

There are clearly both advantages and disadvantages to using MBA rankings as a basis for selecting a business school, so they should be referenced with due caution and should be utilised in conjunction with additional research. Websites and prospectuses of shortlisted schools are another source of vital information, whilst forums can reveal practical aspects of student life. Where possible, communicating with students or alumni directly will enable prospective students to make specific enquiries regarding the school or course structure. By diligently researching and extracting personally relevant data, prospective students will be able to make an informed choice of business school, and in selecting a school suited to their individual requirements will have vastly increased the likelihood of an enjoyable, productive and satisfying MBA experience.

The Financial Times business school rankings

Global MBA rankings

Audit year – the most recent year that KPMG audited a business school, applying audit procedures specific to selected data provided for the ranking.
Salary today – the average alumni salary three years after graduation; not used in the ranking.
Weighted salary (20%) – the current average alumni salary, with adjustment for variations between industry sectors.
Salary percentage increase (20%) – the percentage increase in average alumni salary from pre-MBA to today as a percentage of the pre-MBA salary.
Value for money (3%) – derived from current salary earned by alumni, course length, and fees and other costs, including the opportunity cost of lost salary for the time taking the course.
Career progress (3%) – based on changes in the level of seniority and the size of the company alumni work in since the MBA.
Aims achieved (3%) – the extent to which alumni fulfilled these.
Placement success (2%) – ranking of the effectiveness of an institution’s careers service by alumni.
Employed at three months (2%) – percentage of the most recent graduating class in employment or having accepted an offer of a job within three months of graduation, with a figure in brackets indicating the percentage of the class for which the business school was able to supply this data.
Alumni recommend (2%) – derived from the number of business schools given by alumni when asked to name three business schools from which they would recruit MBA graduates.
Women faculty (2%) – percentage of faculty members who are female.
Women students (2%) – percentage of students who are female.
Women board (1%) – percentage of members on an institution’s advisory board who are female.
International faculty (4%) – percentage of faculty members who are not citizens of the country where they are employed.
International students (4%) – percentage of students who are not citizens of the country where they study.
International board (2%) – percentage of an institution’s advisory board who are not citizens of the country where the institution is based.
International mobility (6%) – based on whether alumni worked in different countries before their MBA, on their graduation and also location of current employment.
International experience (2%) – a weighted average of four criteria that measure international exposure during the MBA programme.
Languages (2%) – number of extra languages required on completion of the MBA; if a proportion of students required a further language due to an additional diploma, that figure is included in the calculations, but not presented in the final table.
Faculty with doctorates (5%) – percentage of faculty members with a Doctoral degree.
FT doctoral rank (5%) – the number of Doctoral graduates from each business school during the past three years, with additional points given if they took up faculty positions at one of the current top 50 business schools providing full-time MBAs.
FT research rank (10%) – based on the number of faculty member publications in 40 academic and practitioner journals, with points given to the business school where each author is currently employed and the total being weighted for faculty size.

See the FT’s Global MBA ranking for more information.

The Financial Times – Executive MBA ranking

Salary today (US$) (20%) – the average alumni salary three years after graduation.
Salary percentage increase (20%) – the percentage increase in average alumni salary from pre-EMBA to today as a percentage of the pre-EMBA salary.
Career progress (5%) – based on changes in the level of seniority and the size of the company alumni work in since the EMBA.
Work experience (5%) – a measure of previous experience derived from the seniority of positions held, the number of years in each position, size of company and any international work experience prior to starting the EMBA.
Aims achieved (5%) – the extent to which alumni fulfilled these.
Women faculty (3%) – percentage of faculty members who are female.
Women students (3%) %) – percentage of students who are female.
Women board (1%) – percentage of members on an institution’s advisory board who are female.
International faculty (5%) – percentage of faculty members who are not citizens of the country where they are employed.
International students (5%) – a combination of the percentage of participants who are not citizens of the country of the business school where they reside and the percentage of participants who reside outside the country where the business school is located.
International board (2%) – percentage of an institution’s advisory board who are not citizens of the country where the institution is based.
International course experience (5%) – percentage of classroom teaching hours that take place outside the country in which the business school is located.
Languages (1%) – number of languages students are required to speak on completion of the EMBA.
Faculty with doctorates (5%) – percentage of faculty members with a Doctoral degree.
FT doctoral rank (5%) – the number of Doctoral graduates from each business school during the past three years, with additional points given if they took up faculty positions at one of the top 50 business schools in the current Financial Times’ full-time MBAs ranking.
FT research rank (10%) – based on the number of faculty member publications in 40 academic and practitioner journals, with points given to the business school where each author is currently employed and the total being weighted for faculty size

See the FT’s Global EMBA ranking for more information.

The Financial Times – Master’s in Management ranking

Salary today (US$) – average salary three years after graduation; not used in the ranking.
Weighted salary (US$) (20%) – the ‘salary today’ figure after adjustment for salary differences between industry sectors.
Value for money rank (5%) – calculated using alumni salaries three years after graduation and course costs, with course length also taken into account.
Careers rank (10%) – alumni career status three years after graduation, based on seniority and the size of company in which they are employed.
Aims achieved (%) (5%) – the extent to which alumni fulfilled these, expressed as a percentage of total returns for a business school.
Placement success rank (5%) – ranking of the effectiveness of an institution’s careers service by alumni.
Employed at three months (%) (5%) – percentage of the most recent graduating class in employment or having accepted an offer of a job within three months of graduation, with a figure in brackets indicating the percentage of the class for which the business school was able to supply this data.
Women faculty (%) (3%) – percentage of faculty members who are female.
Women students (%) (3%) – percentage of students who are female.
Woman board (%) (1%) – percentage of members on an institution’s advisory board who are female.
International faculty (%) (5%) – percentage of faculty members who are not citizens of the country where they are employed.
International students (%) (5%) – percentage of students who are not citizens of the country where they study.
International board (%) (2%) – percentage of the board who are not citizens of the country where the institution is based.
Faculty with doctorates (%) (6%) – Percentage of faculty members with a Doctoral degree.
International mobility rank (10%) – based on changes since graduation in alumni’s country of employment of alumni.
International course experience rank (10%) – a weighted average of four criteria measuring international exposure during the Masters programme.
Languages (5%) – number of additional languages required on graduation from the Masters programme.
Course fee (in local currency) – the minimum programme fees in the currency of the institution’s country of location.
Course length (months) – duration of the Masters programme.
Number enrolled – number of students enrolled on the first year of the Masters programme in the past year.
Relevant degree – whether an undergraduate degree (and in which subject) is required for entry on to the Masters programme.
Company internships (%) – percentage of the last graduating class completing company internships as part of the Masters programme.

The Financial Times – European business school ranking

Full-time global MBA – position of European business school within the current Financial Times’ MBA ranking.
MBA salary today (US$) – average MBA salary three years after graduation.
MBA salary increase (%) – the percentage increase in average alumni salary from the beginning of the MBA to three years after graduation.
Executive MBA – position of European business school within the current Financial Times’ EMBA ranking.
EMBA salary today (US$) – average EMBA salary three years after graduation.
EMBA salary increase (%) – the percentage increase in average alumni salary from the beginning of the EMBA to three years after graduation.
Masters in Management – position of European business school within the current Financial Times’ Masters in Management ranking.
Masters in Management salary today (US$) – average alumni salary three years after graduation.
Executive Education: open programmes – position of European business school within the current Financial Times’ Executive Education open programmes ranking.
Executive Education: custom programmes – position of European business school within the current Financial Times’ Executive Education customised programmes ranking.
Female faculty (%) – percentage of faculty members who are women.
International faculty (%) – percentage of faculty members who are not citizens of the country where they are employed.
Faculty with doctorates (%) – percentage of faculty members with a Doctoral degree.