Financial Times’s 2017 EMBA Ranking

Financial Times has released its 2017 ranking of Executive MBA programs, with the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program holding onto its number one place from last year. The top ten programs on FT’s list are:

– Kellogg-HKUST
– EMBA-Global Asia
– Tsinghua-INSEAD
– EMBA-Global Americas & Europe
– TRIUM
– Antai College of Economics and Management
– Olin Business School
– INSEAD
– Saïd Business School
– ESCP Europe

There are some noticeable changes from last year’s EMBA ranking. For example, EMBA-Global Americas & Europe has risen from eighth to fourth, while INSEAD has correspondingly dropped from fourth to eighth.

The most significant change to the top ten, though, is the appearance of EMBA-Global Asia in second.

A second-place ranking would be impressive for any EMBA program, but to make things more dramatic, this was EMBA-Global Asia’s first year on the EMBA scene (FT’s rankings lag behind by three years). According to FT, this is the best performance by an EMBA program in its first year.

EMBA-Global Asia is a collaboration between London Business School, HKU Business School and Columbia Business School. It includes periods of study in Hong Kong, London, New York and Shanghai.

More generally, joint EMBA programs between multiple schools dominate the EMBA rankings. Besides drawing on resources from multiple institutions, these programs often have an international bent.

For example, EMBA-Global Americas & Europe, which is a partnership between London Business School and Columbia Business School, placed fourth. And TRIUM, a collaboration between NYU Stern, LSE and HEC Paris came in fifth.

Interestingly, although EMBA-Global Asia stole the spotlight by ranking second in its first year of existence, it wasn’t the only new EMBA on the block to make a strong debut. In eleventh place, MIT Sloan’s new EMBA program narrowly missed out on the top ten in its first year on the scene.

So what exactly is being measured in FT’s EMBA ranking? Their methodology takes into account many factors, but the most important are alums’ current salary and their salary increase after receiving EMBAs. Each of these figures accounts for 20 percent of a given school’s ranking.

Among the top ten schools, for example, Kellogg-HKUST had alums with the highest salaries, at an average of $478,379. Antai alums, meanwhile, showed the strongest post-EMBA salary bump, at 107 percent.

Post-EMBA salary increases for each program can be found in the FT rankings. Looking at these numbers reveals that attending a top EMBA program can have a transformative effect on one’s career.

Of course, getting into these programs isn’t easy. That’s where we come in. We can help you figure out which schools line up with your profile, and how to present your personal brand to these schools in a compelling way. To get started, just ask us for a free assessment!