World’s No.1 MBA Is A One Year MBA: INSEAD Tops Financial Times 2016 MBA Ranking

INSEAD, the international business school that introduced the one-year MBA format to the world more than 50 years ago, has climbed on to the first rank in the FT 2016 Global MBA Ranking.

Incidentally, this is also the first time an institution that offers the short but “more value for money” course ended up on the top spot in the Global MBA Ranking list.

Insead, which had been in the running for the past 17 years, has beaten an elite club, including Harvard Business School, London Business School, the Wharton School and Stanford Graduate School of Business that now fill the remaining top five places with their two-year programmes.

Insead’s Class of 2012 managed to garner an average salary of about $167,000 three years after graduation, nearly double their pre-MBA earnings. Alumni from the four other schools in the top five have roughly similar salaries and salary increases three years after graduation.

Insead, which had been in the running for the past 17 years, has beaten an elite club, including Harvard Business School, London Business School, the Wharton School and Stanford Graduate School of Business that now fill the remaining top five places with their two-year programmes.

However, Insead is ranked 10th for value for money, way above the four runners-up, which are in the bottom quarter in this category.

What seems to work in favour of Insead with the students is that while its program is only half as long, its fees are also lower than those of the top three US schools.

Insead was set up 58 years ago in Fontainebleau, outside Paris and prides in calling itself “the business school for the world”. The claim rings true as not only are more than 90 % of the professors and students from all across the world, with campuses in France and Singapore, the school is ranked fifth for international course experience. Its alumni are also ranked third for international mobility.

The school has, over the years, been progressively hiking investment in the past few years in the careers team from 30 to 40 since 2014. It also managed to get donations from the alumni for state-of-the-art video conferencing interview suites on all three campuses. The careers team also proved themselves equal to the challenge, despite the short 1-year format, the geographic diversity and sheer size of the 1020 strong student body.

INSEAD also could claim credit for facilitating 84% of students change sector, function or country, and an impressive 25% switch on all three dimensions. The school has built relationships with a huge roster of regular recruiters from across the globe, and last year graduates took positions with 440 different organizations in 64 countries.

Recruiters are also increasingly seeking the international mindset and ability to work across cultures that is the very essence of an INSEAD MBA graduate. INSEAD now has the highest proportion of alumni at the top 20 most attractive employers (according to a Universum survey) of any school.

Among other top achievers in different categories are the following:

Top for career progress: IIMA: Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad

The one-year, full-time residential PGPX programme from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, within a decade of its introduction, has been ranked number one for the career progress of its alumni this year.

Widely regarded as the top business school in India, a reputation earned for its two-year pre-experience PGP programme, and ranked 15th in the world in the FT’s 2015 Masters in Management rankings, IIMA is also famous for its 100-acre campus and its teaching space designed by American architect Louis Kahn. The school, founded by local entrepreneurs with Harvard Business School, has followed the HBS lead and favours case-based teaching.

Highest new entrant: Renmin

Renmin University of China School of Business is a latecomer to the FT MBA rankings. The school has been offering an MBA since 1991 but became eligible to be ranked in 2010 when it was accredited by Equis (see methodology).

The Beijing school is the highest new entrant, in 43rd place, sandwiched between fellow mainland Chinese schools Antai College of Economics and Management at 39 and Fudan University School of Management at 47. The class of 2012 has an average salary of $94,000 three years after graduation, up 168 per cent on pre-MBA salary.

Highest riser: Carroll

The Carroll School of Management at Boston College has featured annually in the FT MBA rankings since it was first listed in 2006. It has enjoyed mixed fortunes during that time, from a high of 47th place in 2010 to a low of 93rd in 2013.

The 18th edition of the MBA ranking has been more favourable to the school. It climbed 21 places to 69th.

The average salary of its alumni three years after graduation went up by nearly $6,000 to $120,000 compared with last year’s rankings.
The school also registered a strong progression in terms of value-for-money and career progress.

Best international experience: Ipade

Ipade Business School features once again in the FT MBA rankings after having failed to make the top 100 for the past three years. It is ranked 80th overall, just above Incae Business School, the other school from Latin America.

All students study abroad for at least a month on exchange programmes at one of about 75 partner institutions worldwide. Students are also encouraged to go on an international study trip with the school subsidising about half the cost. Ipade adds two destinations per year based on students’ votes. The latest graduating cohort had the option to go to China or Vietnam.

Complete FT 2016 Global MBA Ranking Table

Source: Financial Times