Financial Times

Overview: Financial Times ranks full-time MBA programs around the world each year. It also publishes separate rankings of non-degree executive education programs, executive MBA programs, and European Masters in Management programs. Results from all of these rankings are also used to compile a ranking of European business schools.

Web site: http://www.ft.com/businesseducation/

Summary of Methodology:

Global MBA rankings
For this ranking, Financial Times collects data from alumni and business schools in three main areas: alumni career development; diversity of the school and its program; and the school’s research capability. The alumni career development criteria accounts for 55 percent of the overall ranking and includes items such as weighted salary (standardized to reflect cost of living), alumni recommended rank, and aims achieved (extent to which alumni fulfilled their goals for doing an MBA). The second area, accounting for 25 percent of the formula, looks at a variety of items, such as the percentage of women faculty and international mobility (based on movements of alumni). The third component measures performance in research, including the percentage of faculty with doctorates, number of doctoral students, and rating of publications is 40 journals, and is weighted 20 percent in the overall ranking. (how the tables were compiled)

Global executive MBA
Based on data collected from surveys of schools and alumni who graduate three years prior, criteria are grouped into three main areas: the career progress of alumni; the school’s diversity; and the school’s intellectual output and research. The latter two categories are similar to the global MBA survey. The biggest component of the executive MBA ranking, accounting for 50 percent, is the career success of graduates, from completion of the degree to present. This criteria looks at initial work experience, salary increases, changes in position, and size of company. (how the tables were compiled)

European Master’s in Management
Rankings of these programs are compiled using results from surveys of alumni and business schools. A total of 16 criteria are used. Alumni provide information about salaries, which are converted to euros and adjusted for purchasing power parity, and international mobility, similar to FT’s other surveys. Criteria, such as employment statistics, faculty information, and international course experience rank are calculated using data from business school surveys. More …

European business schools
All criteria from each of the four other FT rankings are used to compile the ranking of European business schools. First, tables showing only European schools for each ranking are produced. Scores from each of the rankings are added together and averaged out depending on the number of rankings in which each school took part. The average score for each school is then deflated based on the number of rankings in which they participated. (how the tables were compiled)