2014 Financial Times’s Global MBA Ranking

A METHODOLOGY THAT IS NOT WITHOUT ITS FLAWS

The single most important factor in the ranking is compensation which accounts for 43% of the total weight. What the FT terms “weighted salary”–average base salary three years after graduation–accounts for 20% of the methodology. These numbers are adjusted–converted to U.S. dollars according to purchasing power parity (PPP) rates and variations between industry sectors–in ways that can severely distort the actual results. For example, according to this year’s ranking data, the alumni of the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad earn $157,459 in annual base salary. That number is vastly inflated due to the PPP adjustment which gives the school a major boost in the FT’s ranking. IIM reported that last year’s graduates who remained in India averaged only $21,154 in salary–a far cry from the FT calculation.

The average difference between pre-MBA salary and current salary accounts for another 20%. Then, the FT makes a “value for money” calculation using current salary, course length, fees and other costs, including lost income while an MBA student. That measurement is given a 3% weight in the ranking.

The remaining 17 metrics have varying weights from as little as 1% for the number of extra languages required on completion of the MBA to as much as 10% for academic research published by a school’s professors in 45 journals in the past two years and ten months. Many of these other metrics would matter little if at all to MBA applicants, including the 5% weight given to the number of doctoral grades from each school in the past three years.

SCHOOLS TRUMPET THEIR FT RANKINGS ON A REGULAR BASIS

Nonetheless, the FT ranking carries considerable clout, magnified largely by the marketing efforts of business schools that trumpet their progress on the list. When it comes to bragging rights, this year’s list gives many individual schools plenty to promote. Canada’s No. 1 business school remained the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, which was ranked 51st in the world. The highest ranked school in Asia is Hong Kong UST Business School, which came in at 14th worldwide. The Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad retained its status as the highest ranked business school in India, though it fell four places to a rank of 30.

Top 25 Full-Time MBA Programs

In Financial Times’ 2014 Global MBA Ranking

 

2014 Rank & School 2013 Rank Change Weighted Salary Increase in Pay
  1. Harvard Business School 1 $178,300 113%
  2. Stanford  2 $184,566 100%
  3. London Business School 4 +1 $156,533 107%
  4. Penn (Wharton) 3 -1 $170,472 99%
  5. Columbia  5 $164,181 116%
  5. INSEAD 6 +1 $148,143 87%
  7. IESE 7 $143,168 125%
  8. MIT (Sloan) 9 +1 $157,262 101%
  9. Chicago (Booth) 10 +1 $156,004 100%
10. Yale 14 +4 $150,880 114%
11. UC-Berkeley (Haas) 12 +1 $149,487 91%
12. IMD 19 +7 $142,446 72%
13. IE Business School 11 -2 $146,933 112%
14. Hong Kong UST 11 -3 $125,060 139%
15. Northwestern (Kellogg) 13 -2 $157,719 94%
16. Cambridge (Judge) 16 $144,350 92%
17. Duke (Fuqua) 18 +1 $141,772 100%
17. New York (Stern) 19 +2 $140,662 97%
17. CEIBS 15 -2 $127,117 156%
20. Dartmouth (Tuck) 16 -4 $150,754 101%
21. HEC Paris 21 $120,016 104%
22. ESADE 22 $120,718 120%
23. Oxford (Said) 24 +1 $133,315 91%
23. Michigan (Ross) 30 +7 $136,828 107%
25. Warwick 28 +3 $119,121 87%

Source: 2014 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking

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