Chinese MBA Programs Rise in FT’s Top 100, Canadians Mixed

Posted by david on Feb 1, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

Rankings, in this case, MBA rankings, should always be taken with a grain of salt but they do to some extent serve as barometers of the rapidly changing world of business education.  The just released Financial Times 2013 survey of the global top 100 MBA programs featured some ups and downs for Canadian schools and the steady rise of Greater China offerings. 

Of the 6 Canadian programs that made the cut, University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management led the pack placing 46^th, down a couple notches from the last FT ranking.  The University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business showed striking improvement with a huge jump of 25 spots to 57^th while York University’s Schulich School of Business moved up 7 notches to 52^nd. 

But, there were losers too as McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management plummeted 15 spots to 76^th.  Similarly, University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School of Management, which in the past had led the Canadian contingent (along with U. of T.), also dropped 10 spots to 78^th.  The University of Alberta’s School of Management brought up the rear making the last spot (100^th) after a 3 year absence from the list.

The Globe and Mail suggests that UBC Sauder’s dramatic rise owes much to: 1) graduate success in landing well-paying jobs in an uncertain economic environment; 2) more international faculty with 76% hired from abroad; 3) a revamped program that puts more emphasis on international study opportunities. 

Murali Chandrashekaran, associate dean for professional graduate programs at UBC said:  “Schools that are paying a lot more attention to their global footprint seem to be rewarded in this marketplace. (Students) immerse themselves globally, come back, and become more globally-minded”.  This semester, Sauder students have the choice of going to Singapore, Copenhagen, or India to work on projects for two weeks.

FT notes the continued rise of Asian schools, particularly Greater Chinese, in the ranking, totaling 14, up 3 from 2012.  6 are from Greater China with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School rising to 8^th place over prestigious US schools such as MIT Sloan, University of Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Northwestern Kellogg and Yale School of Management.  The Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School came in 27^th and the University of Hong Kong 31^st.

But, more interesting is the rise of mainland schools:  Shanghai’s CEIBS climbed 4 places to 15^th, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management made 66^th and Fudan University School of Management 89^th.  US based Hult International Business School with a campus in Shanghai tied for 57^th with UBC Sauder.  Very surprising, however, is the conspicuous absence of Tsinghua University which has a strong reputation in Greater China. 

Joseph Doucet, interim dean of University of Alberta’s business school told the G & M, “Like many other fields, we are seeing an ascendancy [of China], not in terms of numbers of students and schools, but in quality.  That points to a more competitive environment for attracting students…and a more competitive environment in which to hire, which points to the value to us in reaching out to international partners”.  This year, U. of A. is collaborating with Xi’an Jiaotong University to run Master of Financial Management programs in Shanghai and Shenzhen. 

Three Singapore schools appeared on the list (Insead Singapore Campus (6^th), Nayang Business School (32^nd), and National University of Singapore Business School (36^th)) along with two Indian schools (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (26^th) and Indian School of Business (34^th)), and two Korean universities (Sungkyunkwan University SKK GSB (51^st) and Korea University Business School (86^th)) but no Japanese programs. 

The rise of Asian schools has come at the expense of European schools, particularly UK-based which have experienced a continuous slide from 18 on the list in 2009, 14 last year and 11 this year.  FT reports that UK restrictions on the number of work visas issued to graduates have hit enrolment hard and even the best schools on the list have seen enrolment down by 20% since 2010.  Meanwhile, US schools continued to dominate with 51 on the list and occupying 6 of the 10 top spots – Harvard, Stanford, U. of Penn, Columbia, MIT and U. of Chicago.