Forbes 2011 Ranking of Global B-Schools

IMD is ranked third among the top 50 business schools outside the U.S. by Poets&Quants.

IMD edged out INSEAD in the 2001 Forbes MBA ranking of one-year programs outside the U.S.

IMD edged out INSEAD in Forbes new 2011 biennial MBA ranking of one-year programs outside the U.S., while London Business School retained its No. 1 ranking in Forbes’ list of one-year international MBA programs.

Forbes also added one extra school on each list, expanding them to a dozen each from 11 two years ago. The newcomers are the National University of Singapore and Warwick, the latter for its one-year MBA program.

The rankings are solely based on return-on-investment, measured by surveys sent to alumni who graduated from each school five years ago. When Forbes first released these new rankings on Aug. 3, it failed to provide any statistical data on the findings for non-U.S. schools, only releasing this latest ranking via two slideshows at Forbes.com. It has since published the survey findings upon which the rankings are based (see below).

Forbes said that MBAs who graduated from No. 1 ranked IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, racked up a “five-year M.B.A. gain” of $230,000. This compared to a gain of $118,000 for the top ranked U.S. school, Harvard. The median salary for an IMD grad in 2010 was $247,000 compared to $80,000 before school. “What really separates the business schools outside the U.S. is the number of elite one-year programs offered in Europe,” the magazine said. “Students are often able to get their hefty upfront investment back in less than three years.”

Among two-year MBA programs, Forbes said that graduates of London Business School reported a “five-year M.B.A. gain” of $155,000 and a median payback period of 3.2 years. “LBS alumni from the class of 2006 saw their salaries jump from 37,000 pounds before entering school to 127,000 pounds last year (the jump is less impressive in dollar terms due to the weakening of the British Pound),” said Forbes.

2011 Forbes Ranking of Non-U.S. Two-Year MBA Programs

Rank & School	2009 Rank	2007 Rank	Pre-MBA Salary	2010Salary	Yrs toBreakeven
1. London Business School	1	2	$68,000	$197,000	3.2
2. Manchester	2	3	$48,000	$155,000	3.5
3. IESE	3	1	$56,000	$161,000	3.7
4. National Univ. of Singapore	NR	NR	$14,000	$72,000	2.0
5. CEIBS	4	9	$20,000	$106,000	3.0
6. ESADE	8	8	$42,000	$130,000	3.4
7. IPADE	5	5	$16,000	$65,000	2.9
8. HEC-Paris	7	10	$59,000	$161,000	4.0
9. Australian School of Business	9	6	$59,000	$181,000	4.0
10. York (Schulich)	6	4	$36,000	$121,000	4.1
11. McGill (Desautels)	11	11	$43,000	$134,000	4.1
12. British Columbia (Sauder)	10	7	$31,000	$92,000	4.3