Newcastle University

In 1988 when Business Week published its highest selling edition ever, ranking US MBA programmes based on the opinions of both graduates and recruiters, the world of Business Schools changed irrevocably. Since this date rankings of MBA programmes and Business Schools have become part of the market within which we operate.

Business Week and US News and World Report produce the two major rankings of Full Time MBA programmes in the USA . Business Week is the older of these 2 schemes. It produces a list of the top 30 US schools and then a list of the next 20 US schools. It also produces a top 10 global schools, which does not include US schools. They also give lists, which are not ranked of other schools they considered for both US and global ranks. US News and World Report simply rank the top 50 US graduate schools, based entirely on their Full Time MBA programmes.

Both these rankings are MBA specific, however they are used as general measures of the schools' quality. Research in the US shows a link between poor performance in the rankings and turnover of deans of schools as well as significant changes to MBA curricula.

The FT and Economist rankings are global in their spread and both rank the top 100 Full Time MBA programmes worldwide. This produces rankings which, although still dominated by US schools, contain a large number of schools from Europe and Asia .

All these rankings use very different methodologies as demonstrated by the differing positions schools hold in each, for example Harvard was ranked 1 st by US News and World Report, 6 th by Business Week, 2 nd by the FT and is not ranked by the Economist rankings.

The methodologies used by the 2 US rankings are based around a different MBA model, where most of the students are young with no pre-experience and therefore have strong elements of recruiter satisfaction built in to the rankings, along with views from recent graduates.

The FT rankings main metric is career progression, measured by salary increase after graduation. They also consider diversity of faculty and students and research performance of the school, judged by publication within 40 subjectively chosen academic journals.

The Economist ranking is different in that it attempts to be more student-centric, canvassing the views of over 20,000 current and graduated MBA students worldwide, gaining their views on how the programme met their needs as MBA students. It also contains elements of career progression, personal development and networking opportunities.

As already mentioned MBA rankings are important to Business Schools as they are an easily understood perceived measure of quality. There is an ongoing academic debate as to whether rankings are a good thing for Business Schools, one side arguing that they distort how and what we teach and who we recruit and encourage game playing, the other side arguing that by paying attention to our rankings we are continually engaged in an improvement process, which must be of benefit to the students and the wider business community.

The real question is how are the rankings useful to potential students and the employers of our graduates? Along with accreditation, rankings can provide a guide as to the quality of the school. However do not be fooled by a single year's result, a quick look over the last few years rankings suggests most schools have volatility in their ranking position. If we consider there are over 3500 Business Schools offer MBA programmes worldwide, then to be included in a top 100 must be an achievement in itself. Also consider what are you looking for from your MBA? personal development? and a school that meets your needs? Then look to the rankings which judge by those criteria, rather than simply on allegedly objective measures such as salary increase.

Don't just take our word for it, as Bill Ridges the Editor of the Economist Which MBA? Says

“When choosing a school rankings are a useful tool, but, of course, it should only be one input into a student's decision making. It is essential that students know exactly what they want from an MBA and choose the school that will best match their goals. Rankings can give a sense of this, but it is essential that students do their own research--most importantly visiting the schools they are interested in--to make sure it is the best fit for them. “

Written by Dr Andrew Simpson, Director of Executive Education, it provides a rankings reality check