Financial Times Releases 2017 Global MBA Ranking

Financial Times has released their 2017 ranking of MBA programs. INSEAD has held onto its number one spot from 2016, but the top schools have seen a few other significant changes.

This year’s top 10 in FT’s Global MBA Ranking are:

1. INSEAD
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
4. Harvard Business School
5. University of Cambridge, Judge Business School
6. London Business School
7. Columbia Business School
8. IE Business School
9. University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
10. IESE Business School

Eight of 2016’s top ten schools made the cut this year too. However, 2017 saw two European schools push their way into the top ten: IE Business School rose from 12 last year to 8 this year while IESE rose six spots from 16 to 10.

Meanwhile, two U.S. schools fell out of the top ten. MIT’s Sloan School of Management dropped from 9 last year to 13 in 2017. Also at 13 this year was University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, from 7 in 2016.

Even among the schools that stayed in the top ten from 2016 to 2017, there were some surprises. Stanford brushed aside several elite schools, making its way from fifth last year to second this year. Cambridge Judge, meanwhile, rose from tenth to fifth.

Of course, if some schools make gains, others are going to lose out. The number two and three schools from last year – Harvard Business School and London Business School – found themselves relegated to fourth and sixth this year respectively.

Wharton filled the vacancy left by London Business School, edging its way up from fourth into the top three.

FT’s MBA rankings are based on alumni surveys conducted three years after graduation – so this year’s data comes from the Class of 2013.

The survey looks at several different sides of alums’ experiences. Most important is the impact alums’ education has had on their careers, with alums’ weighted average salary and average pre-MBA to post-MBA salary increase each accounting for 20 percent of a given school’s rank.

An additional ten percent of each school’s rank has to do with faculty research – specifically, how many articles faculty have published in journals.

The remaining 50 percent of each school’s rank is determined by an assortment of less heavily weighted factors. For example, 6 percent comes from how internationally mobile students are and 5 percent by how many faculty hold doctorates.

This year’s 2017 MBA ranking doesn’t contain any shocking results, but it does show some schools like Stanford making a serious upward bid and some schools that have traditionally done very well in FT’s ranking, like MIT, slipping a little. For more information, see FT’s analysis.