In The Economist’s ranking of programs for masters in management, HEC School of Management (Paris) took the top spot. An impressive nine out of ten places were taken by European business schools among one-year graduate programs.
According to Poets & Quants , the rankings included 40 schools, and only six American schools were listed among them. The US university with the highest ranking was the McIntire School (University of Virginia), which took the second place for its 1-year program for Masters of Commerce. The third place was taken by the WHU (Germany), the fourth by ESSEC Business School (France), and, to round up the top 5, the fifth spot went to the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). HEC, whose tuition fees amounted to $28,954, welcomes 64 students a year to its one-year program. At the same time, the US McIntire School has a hefty price tag of $47,416 and takes in 116 students annually.
Speaking about other American business universities that made their way into the new The Economist’s rankings, they were the following: Notre Dame University (19th place), Wake Forest University (21st place), Babson College (23rd place), Southern Methodist University (25th place) and University of Florida (32nd place). One more school which is considered to be international, as it has campuses in different countries – Hult International Business School – managed to get the 13th place.
New Rankings vs Old Rankings
The new rankings mark the first time that The Economist tries to rank Masters in Management programs, which have gained more popularity in Europe than the more traditional MBA (which still stays the most popular business program type in the USA). Financial Times, which is also well-known for its informative rankings, has been researching management programs for twelve years already. In these rankings, the top spot has been obtained by the Swiss University of St. Galen for six years back-to-back, while the second and third place belonged to HEC (Paris) and ESSEC for three consecutive years.
The difference between the two rankings is that the new The Economist’s ranking doesn’t include London Business School due to its refusal to take part in the research and/or allow The Economist to include its students and alumni in their surveys. According to The Financial Times, London Business School is sixth best globally.
Other Notable Differences
All in all, the two rankings are not so similar: for instance, Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University) came in fifth in The Financial Times list, but 40th according to The Economist. At the same time, Aston University was regarded more highly by The Economist (33rd place) than The Financial Times (85th place).
Or course, these differences are mostly due to the different methods used by the two media. Still, sometimes they often show ranks that don’t mean anything statistically, as they only manage to capture a single moment in the development of a particular business program.
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