A note on rankings
| Author | Editors The Offcial Master Guide International Executive Edition |
| Function | Editors |
| Organistation | The Offcial Master Guide International Executive Edition |
A lot of organizations and leading magazines publish their own ranking lists. Acquiring a high ranking certainly has become quite a matter of prestige for business schools. And getting admitted to a high ranked school has become an important matter for a lot of students too.
Firstly, what is a ranking list exactly? And how are they composed? Business school rankings compare individual schools with each other according to a varying set of factors, like alumni salary, national or ethnical diversity, quality of research, and so forth. Every list uses its own standards and methodology. The result is that a school’s high ranking does not has to be equivalent to a high educational level or quality. Two of the most influential rankings are those of The Financial Times and The Economist Intelligence Unit (see next page). The Financial Times On http://rankings.ft.com/european-business-school-rankings you can download "The European Business Schools Rankings 2008". This is a meta ranking of European business schools based on their results in the five other Financial Times rankings published in 2007; full-time MBA (published in January), the open enrolment (May) and customised non-degree executive education programmes (May), European masters in management degrees (September) and Executive MBA (October). All the criteria from each of the rankings are used in its compilation; 20 criteria from the MBA ranking, 16 from the open programmes executive education ranking, 16 from the custom programmes ranking, 16 from the European masters in management ranking and 16 from the EMBA ranking. There are some differences in the criteria used to compile the different rankings. For example, the MBA and EMBA tables measure the amount of research undertaken by faculty members at each school, whereas the European masters in management and executive education rankings do not. Another important difference is that the EMBA, MBA and European masters in management rankings include alumni salary data, whereas the executive education rankings do not. All criteria used can be viewed at: The Economist Intelligence Unit
Onhttp://mba.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=2008rankings you can find The economist MBA ranking. The Economist ranking is a global ranking and principally includes full-time MBA programmes that responded to the survey. The programmes had to meet various thresholds of data provision, as well as attaining a minimum number of responses to a survey gauging the opinion of current students and alumni who graduated within the last three years. Data were collected during spring 2007using two web-based questionnaires, one for business schools and one for students and recent graduates. Schools distributed the web address of the latter questionnaire to their own students and graduates. Around 20,000 students and graduates participated. All data received from schools were subject to verification checks, including, where possible, comparison with historical data, peer schools and other published sources. Student and graduate questionnaires were audited for multiple or false entries. On http://mba.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name =wmba_rank_method you can find the measures used to calculate the rankings together with their respective weightings. Conclusion As we can see, each ranking list uses a different set of factors to compare schools with. Especially the questionnaire parts of students, alumni, recruiters and school staff are of a considerable subjective nature. MBA’s are programmes of a highly functional nature. Most students wish to pursue an MBA not because of the intellectual and academic satisfaction and growth it may bring them but because it furthers their professional careers. A good measure therefore seems to be the career prospects a school succeeds in securing for its students. This is usually measured in salary increase. It seems a useful category to consider when you are looking for a school but do remember that it has its limitations as well. It does not for example distinguish between a school’s Finance students and their future careers, and for example Human Resource students. Compiling ranking lists is certainly not a matter of "hard science" and it would be wise not to value them too highly. Consulting them, especially if you are looking for a full-time MBA, can be very useful, but they should not be the sole determinant in your choice.