Ranking

European business schools dominated the Financial Times’ masters in management ranking for 2012. The University of St Gallen placed first followed by ESCP Europe, Cems, HEC Paris, Essec Business School, IE Business School, Esade Business School and Rotterdam School of Management.

Yet another media publication has ranked business schools. U.S. News focuses solely on the U.S. and only surveys American business schools. Nevertheless, the main results still resemble most of the other major rankings. The U.S.News Business School Ranking 2012 places Harvard and Stanford as the top business schools.

Last month we reported on the recent business school ranking from the Financial Times. The ranking showed that U.S. schools still fare a bit better than European schools and also continue to outshine Asian schools.

A recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found that the wage gap between men and women is smaller among MBA graduates than it is among the general U.S. population. Female graduates of full-time MBA programmes received starting salaries equivalent to 85 per cent of the earnings of their male counterparts. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the average percentage in the U.S. workforce is as low as 77 per cent.

Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business was the big winner of this year’s FT ranking. The American business school moved up to first place – an absolute first in the 14 years that The Financial Times has ranked full-time MBA programmes. Stanford leads the ranking followed by Harvard Business School, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and London Business School, which had both tied for first last year. Columbia Business School made it to fifth place this year.

“The Financial Times” ranks the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad as the highest placed newcomer in its 2011 global ranking. That is due to impressive salaries for alumni and due to an extensive international network with other prestigious schools like Stern, Booth, WHU, Essec and HEC. MBA Channel spoke with IIMA’s director Professor Samir K. Barua about the school’s image to be one of the toughest business schools to get into and the relative value of international accreditations.

The FT’s 2011 ranking of global Executive MBA programmes is out and the first three places go to Kellogg/Hong Kong UST, Trium and Columbia/London School of Economics. The winners are all combination programmes where students study in more than one place and often receive a title from more than one university. Of the top 10 EMBA programmes in 2011, seven involve studying on more than one continent.

Year after year, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (or IIM-A) made it to the top in Indian rankings of its B-schools. IIM Ahmedabad is one of the oldest business schools in India and is nationally as well as internationally well recognized. However, this year, two other schools kicked the renowned school from the top spot.

August was the month of rankings. Rather than picking one particular ranking, we have looked at different ones and tried to compile some sort of comparison for you. The most prominent ranking on the market was the one from Forbes magazine.

It might not come as a surprise that each business school has its own strength. A school with an excellent marketing program might be much weaker in accounting and vice versa. The top schools fare pretty well overall but going down the list of excellence shows some astounding highlights.

The 2010 European Business School ranking by the Financial Times looks like the one from last year, at least in regard to the leading five institutions. They are France’s HEC, Great Britain’s London Business School, France’s Insead, Switzerland’s IMD and Spain’s IE Business School, in that order. Further down the list, though, are some surprises.

Not even ten years ago the Executive MBA (EMBA) world was quite different from today. Multi-school, multi-campus programs were rare, their development even endangered when - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 - travelling on international routes became less desirable. Despite those poor beginnings the EMBA programs have grown strongly ever since. The Financial Times reports that between 2001 and 2010 the number of courses in its league table has doubled, from 50 in the original classification to 100 in 2010.

American Business Schools rule the roost in this year’s ranking of full-time MBA programmes published by the “Economist”. The clear winners have been North American schools. It is not just that they occupy seven of the top ten places, including the first four slots. It can be found further down the table, where middle-ranking American schools have leapfrogged their European counterparts.

The “Financial Times” asks why French business schools rule the FT’s “Masters in Management” Ranking. After all, the current list is heavily dominated by the French Grandes Ecoles. 17 of the listed top 65 programmes are of French origin, and five rank in the top ten.

According to the latest ranking of full-time programmes by the British business magazine “Economist” MBA graduates have seen their salaries tumble since the recession. Graduates of European business schools are hit particularly hard.