FT Executive MBA Ranking 2021: agility amid the pandemic

A French, a Chinese and a joint US-Hong Kong programme have held on to the a few top spots in the FT’s 2021 Government MBA Ranking, in a year marked by ongoing pandemic disruption to work and study.

HEC’s Paris Intercontinental EMBA regained top place, forward of — in joint next position — the Kellogg/HKUST EMBA in Hong Kong, which led the 2020 position, and the China Europe Intercontinental Business Faculty (Ceibs) Worldwide EMBA in Shanghai.

EMBA alumni a few yrs right after graduating ongoing to command high pay back at a time of enterprise uncertainty, with modified typical salaries sampled in each 2020 and 2021 up from $276,655 to $281,089.

The range of college students at main enterprise faculties analysed by the FT fell a little bit, year-on-year. Amongst the 88 faculties rated in each 2020 and 2021, the determine went from 7,932 to 7,616, and between the total of 123 establishments assessed, it dropped from 10,729 to 10,one hundred eighty.

Although numerous elite enterprise faculties have ongoing to attract a potent worldwide combine of college students to many campuses that they work alone or in partnership, some smaller sized and regional faculties have suffered in new months with falling intakes.

FT Government MBA position 2021: the top a hundred

Find out which faculties are in our position of EMBA degrees. Master how the desk was compiled.

“We’ve got some faculties that have shuttered their doors and some with programmes on hold,” said Michael Desiderio, govt director of Embac, a trade system representing a greater team of virtually three hundred EMBA companies, like numerous in the US. “My gut [says], globally, course measurement is flat or down, but I do not see demand from customers falling off a cliff.”

The EMBA generally provides instruction for managers and executives who have considerable prior qualified encounter and proceed to work whilst studying portion-time. The rankings are centered on actions this sort of as alumni salaries and how far classes helped them attain their aims a few yrs right after completion, as effectively as the range of university student and instructing bodies and the excellent of educational study.

The FT’s top a few rated programmes — and numerous others between the a hundred — are supplied at many campuses about the planet, which has permitted the faculties to supply a broad vary of activities and greater overall flexibility for the duration of limits on motion.

Both equally HEC Paris and Ceibs work from their own web-sites — in France and Qatar, and in China, Ghana and Switzerland, respectively. Kellogg/HKUST’s EMBA is centered in Hong Kong but delivers college students the likelihood to study portion of the course at other campuses worldwide.

Yuan Ding, dean of Ceibs, said pandemic-connected journey limits and political shifts in China’s partnership with the west experienced led to “a substantial localisation”. He has noticed a drop in attendance by foreign college students and expatriates, offset by climbing demand from customers from nationals for classes taught in Chinese. “We do not take into consideration globalisation as a fait accompli. You have to give content with regionally relevant topics,” he said.

Kathy Harvey, affiliate dean for MBA and govt degrees at Oxford’s Saïd Business Faculty, rated 12th for its EMBA, said course sizes had been a tiny smaller sized in 2020 and 2021 than just before the pandemic, but that software volumes and excellent remained potent. She added that employers’ willingness to accommodate distant doing work experienced permitted contributors to journey to the United kingdom to go to in-human being classes right after doing work remotely from a resort area initial if topic to quarantine.

“We found as a solitary-college programme with a great deal of worldwide content, we had been not as afflicted as we assumed,” she said, incorporating that Saïd introduced “owl and lark” periods so that contributors could be a part of or observe recorded discussions at different times.

The phrases for the past year had been resilience and agility. We expected it of our instructors, college students and team.

The increase in on the web learning has amplified the scope for college students and guest speakers to take part in EMBAs. Amongst FT-rated faculties, the proportion of woman college students amplified in 2021 to a third of the total, continuing an raise from a quarter a ten years back. There has been a similar increase in the proportion of woman faculty.

8 of the dozen greatest-rated programmes are operate in many countries, like the EMBA Worldwide Asia partnership concerning Columbia, London Business Faculty and the College of Hong Kong, and the Trium Worldwide MBA, a joint diploma supplied jointly by HEC Paris, the London Faculty of Economics and New York University’s Stern college.

Together with North America and Europe, China stays a single of the most preferred destinations for EMBAs, even though rated classes are also supplied in destinations this sort of as Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf, north Africa and Iran.

“The phrases for the past year had been resilience and agility,” said Elizabeth O’Neill, govt director of Trium. “We expected it of our instructors, college students and team. We had been main and delivering a programme for worldwide leaders who comprehended mainly because they had been in organisations going by exceptionally swift transform.”

Learners want content on digital transformation, leadership and all the things else. They also want some digital supply

Schools and alumni documented potent curiosity from applicants in learning about digital expertise and technologies, and seeking to be taught partly on the web to supply them with greater overall flexibility to harmony study, work and journey.

“The most important pattern has been a demand from customers for all the things digital,” said Andrew Crisp from CarringtonCrisp, an schooling consultancy. “Students want content on digital transformation, leadership and all the things else. They also want some digital supply — particularly . . . to put together just before they get to the classroom, [to] cut down the range of days absent from work.”

Programs rated by the FT ought to teach at the very least 30 college students and be hosted by a college accredited by the US-centered Affiliation to Progress Collegiate Schools of Business or the European-centered Equis method.