FT Announces 2009 European Rankings

The close of 2009 brings another round of rankings as the Financial Times takes stock of European business schools. The situation across the pond has had its ups and downs over the past year, with some programs in deep freeze and others seeing an uptick in demand.

Colin Mayer, dean of Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, tells FT it has been a tale of the best and the rest. “There’s a lot of prestige and kudos in operating at an international level, but the resourcing is substantial. What determines the international success of a business school is the faculty,” he says, which are a very limited resource.

Which programs have been pummeled by the global economic storm? FT reports that Stockholm School of Economics closed down its full-time program two years ago, leaving only the Copenhagen Business School and the Helsinki School of Economics with full-time MBA programs in Scandinavia.

Meanwhile, both Nyenrode Business Universiteitin the Netherlands and Oslo’s BI Norwegian School of Management have suspended their MBA programs, and other schools have merged in order to build capacity and compete globally. France’s Ceram Business School in Sophia Antipolis and ESC Lille united in the summer to form Skema.

It’s not all bad news though. FT finds that most MBA programs have fared remarkably well in the recession;  in the Association of MBAs’ (AMBA) recent Economic Downturn Survey, 73% of the business schools surveyed expected an increase in demand this year, and most top schools have reported a 20%+ spike  in applications.

The Top Ten European MBA Programs ’09

  1. HEC Paris (France)
  2. London Business School (UK)
  3. INSEAD (France/Singapore)
  4. IMD (Switzerland)
  5. IE Business School (Spain)
  6. IESE Business School (Spain)
  7. Rotterdam School of Management/Erasmus University (Netherlands)
  8. EM Lyon Business School (France)
  9. ESADE Business School (Spain)
  10. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium)

New challenges and opportunities will await European universities and business schools in the coming year as the Bologna Accord ”“ a 1999 agreement signed between European governments to harmonize higher education systems and give compatible degrees ”“ should be fully implemented.

To read Financial Times complete story behind this year’s rankings, click here.

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