Winners & Losers In 2014 FT MBA Ranking

University of Washington Foster School climbed 20 places in the Financial Times' 2014 ranking

University of Washington Foster School climbed 20 places in the Financial Times’ 2014 ranking

U.S. business schools did exceptionally well in the 2014 Financial Times global ranking of the best full-time MBA programs published today (Jan. 26). Of the 12 programs that gained the most ground in the survey, ten were at business schools in the U.S.

They were led by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business and Boston University’s business school, which both jumped 20 places in a single year to finish at 58 and 75th, respectively. The University of Southern California’s Marshall School gained 17 spots to rank 65th, a vast improvement from its 82nd place finish in 2013.

And the big losers in the 2014 FT MBA Ranking? University College Dublin’s Smurfit School plummeted 27 places in the survey to a rank of 91 this year, from 64 in 2013, the single biggest drop of any school. Vlerick Business School suffered the second biggest fall, plunging 16 places to barely cling onto the Top 100 list at the very last numerical rank: 100 from a rank of 84 only a year earlier.

Ultimately, the biggest losers are the schools that completely disappeared off the list. The highest ranked school that did a disappearing act in 2014? CUHK Business School in China which had been ranked 27th in 2013. The Financial Times does not explain why a school might not make the list in any given year, but it could because the newspaper failed to get a minimum sample of surveys back from alumni or a school chose not to participate.

A spokesperson for CUHK told Poets&Quants that the school “did not take part in the Global MBA Rankings due to a technicality.  Our absence from this year’s Financial Times Global MBA Rankings is not a reflection of the academic standing of CUHK’s MBA programs. Upon having close communication with FT, the school fully expects to participate in the next ranking, and will make every effort to ensure that its MBA programs are well placed in the future.”

Other disappearing schools, for whatever reason: The University of Iowa’s Tippie School, which had been ranked 74th in 2013; No. 86 Korea University Business School, No. 90 Incae Business School in Costa Rica; No. 94 Case Western University Weatherhead School; No. 97 College of William & Mary; No. 98 Southern Methodist University Cox School; No. 99 the University of South Carolina’s Moore School, and No. 100 University of Alberta.

On the other hand, many of these schools were replaced by a slew of newcomers. They included No. 98 UC-Davis, No. 97 Durham University Business School, No. 94 Wake Forest University, No. 93 Brigham Young University’s Marriott School, and Germany’s ESMT European School of Management and Technology, which came in at a rank of 89.

The Biggest Winners On The 2014 FT MBA Ranking

 

School Gain 2014 Rank 2013 Rank
University of Washington (Foster) +20 58 78
Boston University +20 75 95
Southern California (Marshall) +17 65 82
University of Cape Town +15 59 74
Penn State (Smeal) +15 62 77
University of Strathclyde +14 73 87
North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) +12 33 45
Boston College (Carroll) +11 82 93
UC-San Diego (Rady) +11 84 95
Michigan State (Broad) +10 52 62
Purdue (Krannert) +10 58 68
Wisconsin +10 81 91

Source: P&Q analysis of the 2014 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking

(See following page for the schools that lost the most ground in the 2014 FT MBA Ranking

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