Best & Worst 2013 MBA Job Placement For International Schools

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Antai) boasts a 100% placement rate

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Antai) boasts a 100% placement rate

Applicants to the world’s best business schools are generally an opinionated bunch–and often their opinions can vary significantly. But one issue that is bound to elicit general agreement is that an MBA degree should get you a job and a pretty good one. So it’s worth examining how the best schools deliver on that promise to get their graduates hooked up with employers.

That kind of analysis tends to be easier among U.S. business schools because they are typically more transparent with both admission and placement stats than non-U.S. schools (see Best & Worst 2013 MBA Job Placement At Top U.S. Schools). But yesterday’s new Financial Times ranking of the world’s best MBA programs published on Jan. 26 unleashed a ton of data, including the percentage of MBAs with job offers or already employed three months after graduation. The FT puts only a 2% weight on this in its ranking methodology–precious little considering the importance applicants and students attach to gaining immediate employment from their considerable investment in the MBA degree.

CHINESE SCHOOLS LEAD THE WORLD IN HAVING THE BEST JOB PLACEMENT RECORDS

But the results, buried in the statistical profiles for the individual schools, are quite compelling. Not surprisingly, given the hot growth of the Chinese economy and the relative paucity of management talent in the country, three business schools in China lead all non-U.S. schools in placement. Shanghai Jiao Tong University reported a 100% employment rate three months after commencement, in all probability the only business school to have 100% placement in the world. Fudan University School of Management and Peking University were second and third, with 99% and 98%, respectively. CEIBs also did very well with 90% placement.

The two best records in Europe were at Germany’s Mannheim Business School, with a 96% placement rate, and London Business School, with a 95% placement record. Some of the other leading business schools in Europe had surprisingly lower numbers. IMD in Switzerland, for example, reported that only 78% of its latest graduating class had job offers or jobs three months after graduation. Even worse, only 61% of the graduating MBAs at Lancaster University Management School had offers or jobs three months after commencement.

In India, the school with the best placement record was not the most highly ranked Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad or the Indian School of Business, but rather the IIM in Bangalore. The school reported that 96% of its latest graduating class had job offers or jobs three months after graduation.

SURPRISINGLY A BRAZILIAN SCHOOL WAS DEAD LAST

Who was dead last in the jobs sweepstakes? Coppead Graduate School of Business in Brazil where only 27% of the graduating MBAs connected with a job, according to the data published by the FT. In fact, the five schools with the weakest numbers were in the U.K., Belgium, Portugal and Canada (see tables on following pages).

One caveat: These statistics are based on school surveys of their own graduates. The Financial Times wisely asks each school what percentage of their latest graduating class responded to the survey. As a result, you get a sense of the confidence with which to interpret the numbers. In general, the response rates are in the 90 percentage range. The lowest reported response rate was provided by the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom which based its seemingly impressive 94% placement rate on replies from only 61% of its graduates.

(See following page for our tables of the schools with the best and worst 2013 MBA Job Placement records)

 

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