Oxford Saïd Tops The 2024 QS Executive MBA Ranking

The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School has topped the 2024 ranking of global Executive MBA programs released July 17 by QS.

Saïd essentially swapped places with France’s HEC Paris from last year’s ranking, rising from No. 3 to No. 1. IESE Business School in Spain held steady at No. 2 for the second straight year.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) is a British-based admissions events company that conducts rankings for online, executive, and full-time MBA programs. It also ranks MBA specializations and business master’s degrees. While this particular ranking is one of the more dubious on the MBA market (more on that later), there is no doubt that Oxford Saïd delivers a world-class EMBA for accomplished executives. The Financial Times ranked Saïd No. 5 in its 2023 Global EMBA ranking.

“We are fortunate to have one of the most diverse and experienced Executive MBA classes in the world, and to have our programme recognised by QS as the world-leader is an achievement everyone at Oxford Saïd can be proud of,” says Kathy Harvey, associate dean of MBA and executive degrees at Saïd.

QS’ Top 10 Global Executive MBAs
2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Institution	Country
1	3	Oxford (Said)	United Kingdom
2	2	IESE Business School	Spain
3	1	HEC Paris	France
4	4	MIT (Sloan)	United States
5	7	London Business School	United Kingdom
6	5	Penn (Wharton)	United States
7	11=	Northwestern (Kellogg)	United States
8	13=	Yale School of Management	United States
9	8	INSEAD	France
10	6	IE Business School	Spain

EUROPEAN AND U.S. SCHOOLS DOMINATE

Once again, European (or used to be European) and U.S. schools dominated the top of the QS EMBA ranking, accounting for the first 13 spots. Of those, six are located in the United States, three are in Spain, and two each are located in the United Kingdom and in France.

In all, 67 U.S. schools made the list out of 194 ranked. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management was the highest ranked U.S. school at No. 4 (the same rank as 2023). It was followed by University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School, which fell one spot to No. 6 for 2024, and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, which rose four spots to No. 7.

University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, which ranked No. 1 in P&Q’s 2023 composite ranking of U.S. EMBAs, dropped three places from 10th to 13th in the QS ranking.

European business schools also did particularly well with 66 schools – including the top three overall. London Business School was the fourth best European school, ranking No. 5 overall. It was followed by France’s INSEAD (No. 9 overall), and Spain’s IE Business School (No. 10) and ESADE Business School (No. 11).

The table below shows the top 10 U.S. and European EMBA programs according to QS.

QS Executive MBA Rankings 2024
Best U.S. Schools
2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Institution	Country	Overall Score
4	4	MIT (Sloan)	United States	94
6	5	Penn (Wharton)	United States	91.6
7	11=	Northwestern (Kellogg)	United States	90.9
8	13=	Yale School of Management	United States	90.6
11	11=	Berkeley (Haas)	United States	88.9
13	10	Chicago (Booth)	United States	88.7
17	13=	UCLA Anderson	United States	86
18	18	Columbia Business School	United States	81.2
20	19	NYU (Stern)	United States	78.9
23	33	USC (Marshall)	United States	72.5
Best European Schools
2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Institution	Country	Overall Score
1	3	Oxford (Said)	United Kingdom	100
2	2	IESE Business School	Spain	98.3
3	1	HEC Paris	France	96
5	7	London Business School	United Kingdom	92
9	8	INSEAD	France	89.8
10	6	IE Business School	Spain	89.1
11	9	ESADE Business School	Spain	88.9
15	17	Warwick Business School	United Kingdom	88
16	16	Cambridge (Judge)	United Kingdom	86.9
19	21	Imperial College Business School	United Kingdom	81.1

OXFORD SAÏD EMBA SECRET

Now in its 20th year, Saïd’s 22- to 24-month EMBA is geared to experienced senior executives and known for its diverse student body, global leadership, and entrepreneurial mindset. Its current class has 65 executives from 32 countries and 28 employment sectors. The average age is 40 and 35% of the class are women.

“I considered offers from other top-tier schools, but always knew Saïd Business School was the right school for me. The academic rigour for which the University of Oxford is globally renowned, combined with an emphasis on purpose-and-impact driven leadership, has been a perfect fit. The Saïd Business School Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship was also a key differentiator,” says Eleanor Hevey, a P&Q Best and Brightest EMBA from 2023.

“The Executive MBA is more than a higher degree in business fundamentals – it’s a facilitated leadership journey that requires meaningful engagement and investment in personal growth. That requires being open to challenge and change. I’ve been excited and privileged to explore a more authentic leadership style and to bring that back into the workplace to foster a supportive but bold culture that’s less afraid to take calculated risks.”

On the QS ranking, it was third in class diversity and fourth in thought leadership for its stellar academic reputation. It also ranked ninth in employer reputation, 24th in executive profile, and 34th in career outcomes.

In its two decades, Oxford Saïd has welcomed more than 1,300 EMBA candidates. The school is now telling some of their stories through a podcast series, The Application, to mark the program’s 20th anniversary. You can listen here.

“The Oxford EMBA is an intellectual playground. We have continuous opportunities to meet individuals from extraordinary backgrounds and accomplishments – all here with the same vision: to propel ourselves to accelerated places and create even greater impact,” says EMBA student David Bennatar, climate author and international advisor.

QS RANKING METHODOLOGY

QS ranks EMBAs based on five metric groups, with data collected from its two long-standing surveys – the QS Global Employer Survey and the QS Academic Survey, according to its methodology.

Schools were also asked to submit EMBA specific data.

Its five metric groups include:

• Employer Reputation (30% weight): This is collected through the employer survey sent to evaluate sentiment of thousands of companies and hiring managers around the globe. QS has administered the survey for more than 20 years, so gives the greatest weight to the most recent responses.
• Academic Reputation & Thought Leadership (25%): This is collected through QS’ academic survey which surveys schools on their perceptions of peer schools’ reputations. Based on the results, it aims to measure a school’s research, academic partnerships, their educational innovativeness, and greater impact.
• Career Progression (20%): This category looks at mean percentage salary increase and percent of graduates promoted within 12 months of program completion.
• Executive Profile (15%): Considers average years of work experience, average years of managerial experience, and the percentage of students with C-suite experience in the enrolled class.
• Class Diversity (10%): Considers percent of women and number of nationalities in the enrolled class.

THE EMBA RANKING LANDSCAPE

While EMBA rankings are a useful guide, they are not as closely scrutinized as MBA rankings. A large number of EMBA choices are made based on geography, because executives want to attend the best program in their city or region to cut down on travel for in-person classes. (New hybrid and online options are making this less of a concern.)

But, EMBA rankings do matter. And, there are a few different rankings for EMBA prospects to consider.

P&Q’s ranking of U.S. programs uses a composite approach to smooth out fluctuating results from other rankings’ methodologies. Our composite uses three dominant EMBA rankings on the market: U.S. News & World Report (40% weight), The Financial Times (40% weight), and Fortune’s relatively new ranking (20% weight). (We previously used the Economist’s EMBA ranking but killed its MBA ranking in 2022 because of withering criticism and hasn’t put our EMBA ranking since 2021.)

U.S. News bases its EMBA ranking of the Top 30 U.S. programs entirely on a survey sent to deans and senior faculty of business schools. The Financial Times surveys both schools and alumni for its ranking, collecting data on 15 different metrics. About 4,117 alumni completed the most recent FT ranking, providing data on salary increases after the program, career progress, and aims achieved. FT also considers research published by the school’s full-time faculty.

Fortune uses data collected via school surveys, figures available on school websites, and information collected from companies and executives. For its program score (weighted 50%), Fortune considered factors like average years of work experience, average years of management experience, and percentage of students with an advanced degree. Its Brand Score (35%) is compiled by surveying business professionals and hiring managers for their opinions on specific business schools. And its Fortune 1000 score (15%) counts the number of a school’s C-level executives from any school MBA program at Fortune 1000 companies, the magazine’s annual list of the 1000 largest companies in the U.S.

The QS ranking is not as highly regarded as some of its competitors. After consulting with MBA consultants and business school staffers who work on rankings, P&Q has called out QS’ Global ranking of full-time MBA programs as being one of the worst for its vague methodology, poor transparency, and concerns over conflict of interest. While the critiques weren’t lodged at QS’s EMBA ranking specifically, it’s enough to give one pause. (In response, QS co-founder Nunzio Quacquarelli defended their ranking.)

All 194 schools listed in QS’ 2024 Global Executive MBA Ranking are shown on the following pages. For more detail, see the full ranking here.

 

Next page: The QS 2024 Global Executive MBA Ranking, No. 1-50