The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago has dominated the world ranking of best executive MBA programs with four programs in the top 10. The survey was conducted by the The Economist, a UK based magazine.
Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program, a joint venture between the Northwestern and the Schulich School of Business at York University, has taken the number one spot in the list. Other Northwestern programs that feature in the top 10 are Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA and Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA. These programs ranked sixth and seventh respectively, are offered in collaboration with Hong Kong UST and WHU in Germany.
Kellogg, which offers an EMBA exclusively is placed eight in the list.
The magazine decided the rankings after considering two broad factors: personal development/educational experience and career development. They also looked into 27 other criteria - the quality and diversity of students, the quality of the faculty, the percentage of students who receive a promotion after they graduate and the average salary increase graduates expect.
The results combined student-reported figures, student ratings and data provided by the schools.
The findings of the survey indicate that students are more inclined towards joint program. The Kellogg-Schulich program scored the highest marks for the quality of their classmates, faculty and facilities and for helping students attain their pre-MBA career goals. Meanwhile, the joint MBA offered by Kellogg and the Hong University of Science of Technology, received the maximum marks for the overall quality of its students. Students who graduate from this program are estimated to earn $261,000 on average once they complete 15 years of work experience.
Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program is followed by Global Executive MBA from IE, Spain and UCLA-NUS Executive MBA by the UCLA-National University of Singapore, which have secured second and third places on the list, respectively.
The EMBA at IE Business School offers classes, both online and on campus in Spain, China and Brazil. The school scored the maximum marks in the salary category. IE students reported their basic salary to rise by 52 percent by the time they graduated, from $101,569 to $154,281. Within two years they could expect their salaries to increase by 125 percent, which is claimed to be more than the students from any other school.
According to the experts, the reason why joint MBA programs are faring well on the list is because they are more focused on a global level. For example, the UCLA-NUS EMBA, asks students to undertake a minimum of four one-week assignments abroad during the course of the program. Plus, the joint programs also attract more experienced students.
On an average, students on the UCLA-NUS program have three years work experience and earn close to $40,000 more than the UCLA's standalone program.
The list names Oxford (Said) and IESE as the fourth and fifth best EMBA programs in the world. Around 88 percent of the IESE students said that they had either been promoted or helped their company grow since graduation.
Top 10 Executive MBA Programs In the World:
