The Executive MBA ranking, released for the third year in a row, is based on two web-based questionnaires between March and May 2018. One questionnaire was filled out by business schools and included quantitative measures, such as details of students and faculty, the number of overseas assignments required, and statistics on alumni. The second questionnaire was filled out by current students and alumni from the schools’ last three graduating classes.
Two broad yardsticks were used to rank the programmes: personal development/educational experience and career development. Both categories are equally weighted.
Which are the top EMBA programmes?
The Economist ranked 65 EMBA programmes, each deserving your attention if you are looking for the one that suits you best. Below you can find the schools included in the ranking listed by country. The full 2018 Executive MBA ranking can be found here. See the full methodology here.
Australia
University of Melbourne – Melbourne Business School
Britain
Henley Business School
Imperial College Business School
University of Oxford – Saïd Business School
University of Strathclyde – Strathclyde Business School
University of Warwick – Warwick Business School
Canada
Concordia University – John Molson School of Business
Denmark
Copenhagen Business School
France
EMLYON – EMLYON Business School
Germany
European School of Management and Technology – ESMT Berlin
University of Mannheim – Mannheim Business School
Ireland
Trinity College Dublin – School of Business
University College Dublin – Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business
Netherlands
Tilburg University – TIAS School for Business and Society
Nigeria
Pan-Atlantic University – Lagos Business School
Singapore
National University of Singapore – The NUS Business School
Spain
IE University – IE Business School
University of Navarra – IESE Business School
Switzerland
IMD - International Institute for Management Development
United States
Arizona State University – W. P. Carey School of Business
Boston University – Questrom School of Business
Brigham Young University – Marriott School of Business
Case Western Reserve University – Weatherhead School of Management
Columbia Business School
Cornell University – Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Georgetown University – Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business
Hult International Business School
Michigan State University – Eli Broad College of Business
New York University – Leonard N Stern School of Business
Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management
Pennsylvania State University – Smeal College of Business
Purdue University – Krannert Graduate School of Management
Rice University – Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Business
Rutgers Business School
Southern Methodist University – Cox School of Business
Temple University – Fox School of Business
Texas Christian University – Neeley School of Business
Thunderbird School of Global Management
UCLA – Anderson School of Management
University of California at Berkeley – Haas School of Business
University of California at Irvine – Paul Merage School of Business
University of California, San Diego – Rady School of Management
University of Chicago – Booth School of Business
University of Florida – Warrington College of Business
Fordham University – Gabelli School of Business
University of Georgia – Terry College of Business
University of Maryland – Robert H Smith School of Business
University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management
University of Notre Dame – Mendoza College of Business
University of Pittsburgh – Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Tennessee, Knoxville – Haslam College of Business
University of Texas at Austin – McCombs School of Business
University of Wisconsin-Madison – Wisconsin School of Business
Vanderbilt University – Owen Graduate School of Management
Joint Programmes
EADA/HHL Leipzig (Spain/Germany)
ESADE/Georgetown University (Spain/US)
ESSEC/Mannheim (France/Germany)
IMM Global Executive MBA (United States / Netherlands / China / Brazil / Italy / Lithuania)
Mannheim/Shanghai (Tongji) (Germany/China)
Northwestern (Kellogg)/WHU (Beisheim) (United States/Germany)
Northwestern (Kellogg)/York (Schulich) (United States/Canada)
UCLA/NUS Business School (United States/Singapore)
Key findings
Yale School of Management (US) topped the ranking this year, moving up from tenth in 2015. On the two broad measures in the methodology – personal development/educational experience and career development – Yale achieved high scores. The US business school also ranked first out of 65 programmes for pre-MBA salary, quality of faculty, rating of culture, and classmates, while the helpfulness of its alumni network was also praised by students.
Read: Do Rankings Reflect the Quality of Business Education
The Economist stated that: “Yale's programme is emblematic of the globe-trotting nature of executive education. A quarter of Yale's class of 2019 are from outside the United States, hailing from 16 different countries. This global outlook extends beyond the nationality of students enrolled on EMBA programmes.”
Yale is followed by the joint-EMBA programme offered by UCLA Anderson (US) and the National University of Singapore in second place, and the joint-EMBA of Kellogg School of Management (US) and WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany) in third place. The internationalisation is underlined by the fact that three of the top ten programmes are run jointly by schools in different countries, or continents. In addition, Chicago Booth (US) teaches its EMBA at campuses in Chicago, London, and Hong Kong.
The two new entrants to the top 10 are Berkeley’s Haas Business School (US) in fourth place and IMD Business School (Switzerland) in fifth place. The ranking, however, did not undergo that much change, with seven of the top-10-ranked EMBA programmes this year also being among the 10 best in 2015.
A total of seven business schools from the United States found places in the top 10. The two UK schools represented in the top 10 are the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School in seventh place and Warwick Business School in tenth place.
Just outside the top-10, the joint-EMBA offered by ESADE Business School (Spain) and Georgetown University (US) ranked 11th. IE Business School (Spain) (19th) and EDHEC Business School (France) (20th) made it into the top 20.
Sources: The Economist, BusinessBecause
