There is no ‘best’ business school in the world, but there may be a ‘best’ business school for each individual

WHO IS THE BEST OF ALL

There is no ‘best’ business school in the world, but there may be a ‘best’ business school for each individual

    The appetite for rankings of the world’s top B-schools remains undiminished, with BusinessWeek, the latest to produce its biennial MBA ranking last month amidst a wealth of data on salaries, selectivity and student satisfaction. Critics of the MBA rankings, and there are many of them, point out that they typically only measure what is easy to count — things like post-MBA salaries, GMAT scores and the percentage of international students and faculty. The over-reliance on self-reported data is also called into question, and the absence of any meaningful indicators for teaching quality, personal development, or the impact of the alumni network. But what happens when you take all the MBA rankings collectively? Business schools are separated into four regions (US, Europe, Canada and Asia-Pacific) to account for the fact that only the Financial Times (FT) and The Economist make direct international comparisons. Overall performance is calculated by looking at the position within each region, and taking an average of those results based on the number of rankings in which the schools appear. In the US, the four top places continue to be dominated by Harvard Business School, Chicago Booth, Stanford GSB and The Wharton School. But further down, the volatile financial markets may have contributed to the slip of the Columbia Business School and NYU Stern, while the University of Virginia’s Darden made it to the top 10 on the back of its teaching quality and student satisfaction. Cornell’s Johnson School also moved upwards, following a strong showing in BusinessWeek. The London Business School maintains the top spot among European schools, with an impressive 12-month performance that sees it as the #1 European Business School in three of the major rankings. IESE Business School climbed into the top three following the school’s strong performance in both the BusinessWeek and The Economist rankings, with France’s HEC Paris also rising at the expense of Spain’s Esade. In the UK, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has overtaken Cambridge Judge based on their performance in BusinessWeek and The Economist rankings. And for the first time a German business school is closing in on the European top 10, with Mannheim entering the ranking on the back of some great results, though they are yet to be ranked by the FT. In Asia, the IIM Ahmedabad keeps its #2 position on the back of strong results in the FT and The Economist, surrounded by schools from Hong Kong and mainland China, while in Canada, the big winners this year are York University’s Schulich and McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management. But as McGill-Desautels dean Peter Todd explains, there is no ‘best’ business school in the world, but there may be a ‘best’ business school for each individual. “Rankings measure a variety of things, and are a useful tool for candidates, but they are only one component of many to ensure the best fit. A school’s approach to teaching, the blend of classmates, and a management education that ensures career development and prepares students to do right in the world are all part of the bigger picture.”
(The writer is chief editor, MBA50.com)
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METHODOLOGY: (See Table) Here is a calculation of the overall performance by looking at each ranking position compared to other regional schools. For example, if a Spanish school ranked #33 in the overall FT ranking and #18 in the overall The Economist ranking, but among European business schools was #12 in the FT and #5 in The Economist, then this regional figure was used for the calculation. The idea is to compare the performance of schools in multiple rankings, and therefore does not include the many business schools, particularly those from outside the US, that appear in only one ranking. To be included in the evaluation, a US business school must appear in at least four major rankings, and all other schools must appear in at least two major rankings. This means that schools such as the Indian School of Business, Canada’s Queen’s University, and the UK’s Imperial College, outstanding business schools as recognised by their positions in the FT, The Economist and BusinessWeek have not been included for 2012