European school takes top spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit's MBA rankings
For the first time, a European school—Spain’s IESE—has topped the list in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2004 ranking of full-time MBA programmes. One of the main reasons that IESE does so well is the quality of its careers placement. IESE graduates can expect an average salary of around US$142,000 when they leave the programme, with 96% of graduates finding a job within three months. Despite this European success, the ranking once again underlines the dominance of US schools. Eight of the top ten schools are American. Kellogg, which had topped the ranking for three consecutive years, drops to second, with Dartmouth, Stanford and Chicago all featuring prominently. Bill Ridgers, the editor of Which MBA, commented: ―The main things that set these schools apart are a robust programme and excellent faculty. They often also possess a strong collegiate sense, meaning that students are keen to evangelise about their schools.‖ The highest ranked school in Asia and Australasia (excluding INSEAD, which has campuses in both France and Singapore) is the University of Hong Kong, in 45th place. Top 100 full-time MBA programmes (2004 in Rank brackets) School 1 (9) University of Navarra - IESE Business School 2 (1) Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management 3 (3) Dartmouth College - Tuck School of Business 4 (2) Stanford Graduate School of Business 5 (5) IMD - International Institute for Management Development 6 (6) University of Chicago - Graduate School of Business 7 (10) New York University - Leonard N Stern School of Business 8 (11) University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business 9 (7) Columbia Business School 10 (19) University of California at Berkeley - Haas School of Business 11 (20) INSEAD 12 (15) Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT Sloan School of 13 (16) Management University of Virginia - Darden Graduate School of Business 14 (12) Administration 15 (18) UCLA - The Anderson School 16 (20) IE - Instituto de Empresa 17 (17) Cornell University - Johnson Graduate School of Management 18 (14) Yale School of Management 19 (27) HEC School of Management, Paris 20 (62) University of Cambridge - Judge Institute of Management 21 (26) Henley Management College 22 (59) Hult International Business School 23 (31) London Business School 24 (33) Emory University - Goizueta Business School 25 (13) Duke University - Fuqua School of Business 26 (29) Carnegie Mellon University - The Tepper School of Business 27 (22) York University - Schulich School of Business 28 (30) Warwick Business School 29 (24) Ohio State University - Fisher College of Business University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business 30 (37) School 31 (40) University of Oxford - Saïd Business School
Country Spain US US US Switzerland US US US US US France/Singapore Belgium US US US Spain US US France UK UK US UK US US US Canada UK US US UK
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32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
(28) (34) (35) (32) (44) (38) (43) (72) (39) (91) (53) (25) (36) (68) (23) (67) (49) (41) (45) (48) (n/a) (55) (52) (54) (46) (56) (61) (n/a) (81) (79) (78) (58) (63) (47) (42) (51) (n/a) (64) (74) (69) (65) (73) (50) (80) (82) (70) (66) (71) (89) (57) (n/a) (93) (96)
Cranfield School of Management Washington University in St Louis - Olin School of Business ESADE Business School University of Edinburgh - Management School Aston Business School University of Iowa - Henry B Tippie School of Management University of Bath - School of Management Ashridge University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business City University - Cass Business School E.M. Lyon University of Birmingham - Birmingham Business School University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - College of Business University of Hong Kong - Faculty of Business and Economics University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business University of Strathclyde - Graduate School of Business Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business Georgetown University - Robert Emmet McDonough School of Business University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business University of Maryland - Robert H Smith School of Business University College Dublin - Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management Lancaster University Management School Indiana University - Kelley School of Business University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management NIMBAS Graduate School of Management University of Rochester - William E Simon Graduate School of Business Monash University Leeds University Business School University of Glasgow - Business School Durham Business School Manchester Business School Wake Forest University - Babcock Graduate School of Management University of California at Davis Imperial College London - Tanaka Business School Purdue University - Krannert Graduate School of Management EGADE-Tecnologico de Monterrey Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad Southern Methodist University - Cox School of Business Queen's School of Business - Queen's University University of Wisconsin-Madison - Graduate School of Business University of Pittsburgh - Joseph M Katz Graduate School of Business Macquarie Graduate School of Management Nottingham University Business School ESCP-EAP European School of Management University of British Columbia - Sauder School of Business Sheffield University Management School Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Rice University - Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Management Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - School of Business and Management Nanyang Business School - Nanyang Technological University Bradford School of Management
UK US Spain UK UK US UK UK US UK France UK US Hong Kong US UK US US US US Ireland US UK US US Netherlands US Australia UK UK UK UK US US UK US Mexico India US Canada US US Australia UK France Canada UK US US US Hong Kong Singapore UK
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85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
(60) (86) (n/a) (84) (88) (n/a) (83) (95) (99) (87) (98) (97) (85) (90) (92) (n/a)
University of Newcastle upon Tyne - Business School Bocconi University - SDA Bocconi School of Management University of Otago - School of Business International University of Japan - Graduate School of International Management RSM Erasmus University Curtin University Graduate School of Business Thunderbird - Garvin School of International Management China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) International University of Monaco University of Arizona - Eller College of Business and Public Administration Nyenrode, Universiteit -The Netherlands Business School University of Georgia - Terry College of Business College of William & Mary - School of Business Administration Solvay Business School - Université Libre de Bruxelles Melbourne Business School - University of Melbourne University of Southampton - School of Management
UK Italy New Zealand Japan Netherlands Australia US China Monaco US Netherlands US US Belgium Australia UK
Ratings by category US schools generally do particularly well in the ―open new career opportunities‖ category. This is partly because careers services in the US are often more lavishly funded, better organised and more professionally set up than in the rest of the world. At Chicago, for example, 90% of students find a job within three months of graduating and students rate the school’s careers services at 4.6 out of 5—higher than any other school. US schools also dominate the personal development and educational experience category. US institutions invest heavily in their faculty. It is not unusual to find that everyone teaching on a top US programme has a PhD; this is the case at UCLA or MIT, for example. They are also choosy about the students they admit. Out of ten schools with average GMAT scores (a pre-programme intelligence test) over 700, only one, INSEAD, is outside the US. Where European schools decidedly have the edge on their US counterparts is in the salaries of their graduates. At Ashridge in the UK, for example, graduates can on average expect to earn over US$200,000 a year; at Henley the average is US$172,000 and at IESE it is US$142,000. In total 24 schools boast average graduate salaries of over US$100,000, and all but two are European—Dartmouth and Stanford being the exceptions. Although some of this can be can be explained by the strength of European currencies against the dollar, it is particularly a reflection of the strong jobs market in the UK and Spain, especially in the financial services sector. European schools, which often have more international alumni, also score well on their potential for ―networking‖.
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Top 10 programmes by category Open new career opportunities
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Indian Institute (Ahmedabad) Chicago Northwestern (Kellogg) Stanford IESE Dartmouth (Tuck) Columbia IE Michigan (Ross) Ohio (Fisher)
Personal development and educational experience Stanford Northwestern (Kellogg) Dartmouth (Tuck) New York (Stern) INSEAD Monash Yale London Chicago California at Berkely
Increase salary
Potential to network
Ashridge Henley IESE IMD HEC, Paris Oxford (Saïd) NIMBAS Edinburgh Aston Strathclyde
Henley E.M. Lyon HEC, Paris Queen’s Vlerick Leuven Gent Cambridge Southern Methodist (Cox) EGADE Thunderbird IMD
The ranking’s distinctive features and methodology Over the past 17 years, the Economist Intelligence Unit has regularly surveyed MBA students about why they take an MBA. Four factors consistently emerge: to open new career opportunities and/or further current career; personal development and educational experience; to increase salary; the potential to network.
These factors are the basis for the ranking. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks full-time MBA programmes on their ability to deliver these elements to students. It weights each element according to the average importance given to it by students surveyed over the past five years. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranking differs from other rankings in several important areas. It is: More student-centric. It measures the way schools meet the demands students have of an MBA programme. All-embracing. It is based on detailed questionnaires completed by business schools and around 20,000 current MBA students and graduates around the world. Key numerical data (such as average GMAT scores) are combined with subjective views from students and graduates (such as their assessment of a business school’s faculty). Global. It allows direct comparison of MBA programmes around the world. Regional. It compares MBA programmes in three regions: North America, Europe, and Asia and Australasia. Flexible. Programmes may be ranked in many ways, producing, for example, tables of the top ten US or Asian and Australasian schools by GMAT score or the top ten US and European school by percentage of foreign students. This facility is available at www.which-mba.com.
To qualify for inclusion in the Economist Intelligence Unit rankings, the schools with full-time MBA programmes that responded to our survey had to meet various thresholds of data provision, as well as attaining a minimum number of responses to a survey gauging the opinion of current students and alumni who graduated within the last three years. These were set as a proportion of the annual intake of students to the programme. Data were collected during spring 2005 using two web-based questionnaires, one for business schools and one for students and recent graduates. Schools distributed the web address of the latter questionnaire to their own students and graduates. A total of 18,266 students and graduates participated. All data received from schools were subject to verification checks, including, where possible, comparison with historical data, peer schools and other published sources. Student and graduate questionnaires were audited for multiple or false entries.
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Memory has been built into the rankings by taking a weighted average of 2005 (50%), 2004 (30%) and 2003 (20%) data to provide a rounded picture of the school. Sudden movements in data, which might not produce an immediate increase in quality, are thus reflected gradually, much as the improvement would affect students. The table below summarises the measures used to calculate the rankings together with their respective weightings. Student and alumni ratings make up 20% of the total ranking, and 80% is based on data provided by schools. The statistical methodology adopted for the ranking gives each business school a unique score (known to statisticians as a z-score). Unlike some other rankings, the Economist Intelligence Unit does not include any ―equal‖ schools (for example, four schools ranked equal sixth followed by one ranked tenth). However, it should be noted that differences between some schools might be very slight. Summary of ranking criteria and weightingsa Measure Indicators Weighting (as percentage of category)
A Open new career opportunities (35%) 1 Diversity of recruiters Number of industry sectors 25.00 2 Job search success Percentage of graduates in jobs 25.00 three months after graduation 3 Jobs found through the Percentage of graduates finding 25.00 careers service jobs through careers service 4 Student assessment Student rating of careers services 25.00 B Personal development and educational experience (35%) 1 Faculty quality Ratio of faculty to students 8.33 Percentage of faculty with PhD 8.33 (full-time only) Faculty rating by students 8.33 2 Student quality Average GMAT score 12.50 Average length of work 12.50 experience 3 Student diversity Percentage of foreign students 8.33 Percentage of women students 8.33 Student rating of culture and 8.33 classmates 4 Education experience Student rating of programme 6.25 content and range of electives Range of overseas exchange 6.25 programmes Number of languages on offer 6.25 Student assessment of facilities 6.25 and other services C Increase salary (20%) 1 How much did your salary Salary change from pre-MBA to 25.00 increase after graduating? post-MBA (excluding bonuses) 2 Leaving salary Post-MBA salary (excluding 75.00 bonuses) D Potential to network (10%) 1 Breadth of alumni network Ratio of alumni to current 33.33 students 2 Internationalism of alumni Ratio of students to overseas 33.33 alumni branches 3 Alumni effectiveness Student assessment of alumni 33.33 network a A minimum threshold of data was required for each category. Weightings for schools meeting the category threshold but not providing all data were redistributed evenly within the category.
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