INSEAD Tops Latest FT Global MBA Rankings

Earlier this week, the Financial Times released its 2016 Global MBA Rankings, and for the first time since the ranking’s launch in 1999, a business school with a strong Asian presence—INSEAD—takes the top spot, rising from fifth place in 2015.

INSEAD financial times global mba rankings

INSEAD, the international business school with campuses in Singapore, Abhu Dahbi, and Fontainebleau, France, also makes history in this particular ranking as it is the first time FT has crowned a one-year MBA program. INSEAD was the first business school in the world to offer a one-year MBA program beginning in 1959.

“As the cost of studying for an MBA has steadily risen, many students are wary of taking on the debt associated with two-year degrees — students are frequently more than $100,000 in debt when they graduate. Though fees and living costs can be substantial, it is often the opportunity cost of lost salary that is the biggest factor,” write FT’s Della Bradshaw and Laurent Ortmans.

This year’s ranking shows a bit more movement than we saw last year, when FT deemed Harvard Business School the top MBA program for the third time in a row. U.S. MBA programs continue to dominate the top ten with seven schools, but this year, Spain’s IESE Business School slipped to 16th place, down from seventh place. Meanwhile, Cambridge Judge Business School comes in at number 10 this year, up from 13th in 2015.

Top Ten FT Global MBA Ranking 2016

  1. INSEAD
  2. Harvard Business School
  3. London Business School
  4. University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
  5. Stanford Graduate School of Business
  6. Columbia Business School
  7. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
  8. Chicago Booth School of Business
  9. MIT Sloan School of Management
  10. Cambridge-Judge Business School

One interesting development to come out of these latest rankings is the increase in the numbers of women pursuing the MBA. “In 2015, 35 per cent of MBA students were women, up from 30 per cent in 2005. Last year, the proportion of female students topped 40 per cent in 27 schools, a leap from just four schools 10 years ago,” Ortmans reports.

The Financial Times ranking methodology involves assessing MBA programs according to the career progression of alumni, the school’s idea generation, and the diversity of students and faculty. FT data from the past three years is used for alumni-informed criteria.

For more information, visit FT‘s 2016 Global MBA ranking analysis and school profiles.

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