This is the 16th annual Financial Times ranking of European business schools. It is a composite ranking based on the combined performance of Europe’s leading schools across the five main rankings of programmes published by the FT in 2019: MBA, Executive MBA, Masters in Management (MiM) and the two rankings of non-degree executive education programmes. The online MBA and masters in finance rankings are not included.

A European school rank is calculated after removing non-European schools for each of these main rankings. MBA, EMBA and MiM account for 25 per cent each of each school’s total performance. For executive education, the scores obtained for customised and open programmes each account for 12.5 per cent.

The ranking measures the schools’ quality and breadth of programmes. Schools must participate in all five rankings in order to be eligible for a full score. Schools that take part in only one ranking are eligible for a quarter of the total score.

An indexed score is created for each ranking. These scores are then added together, according to the weighting above, creating a combined total for each school. This overall score is divided by the number of rankings in which a school features to calculate an average score — a derived measure of quality. This is added to the combined total score to generate a final score by which the schools are ranked.

Scores are not simply based on aggregation of published ranking positions. They are calculated using Z-scores — formulas that reflect the range between the top and bottom school — for the individual criteria that make up each component ranking.

Key

(Weights for ranking criteria are shown in brackets as a percentage.)

The European Business Schools ranking is based on the overall scores that each school has achieved for each ranking in which it features, such as MBA, Executive Education, Masters in Management and EMBA. The composite ranking is not based solely on the data displayed in the European schools table.

MBA

European rank (25): position among European schools that took part in the 2019 FT Global MBA ranking.

Salary today $: average alumni salary three years after graduation, US$ by purchasing power parity (PPP). Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase (%): average difference in alumni salary between pre-MBA and now, three years after graduation.

EMBA

European rank (25): position among European schools that took part in the 2019 EMBA ranking.

Salary today $: average three years after graduation, US$ PPP. Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase (%): average difference in alumni salary between pre-EMBA and now, three years after graduation.

Masters in Management

European rank (25): position among European schools that participated in 2019 FT MiM ranking.

Salary today $: average salary three years after graduation, US$ PPP. Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase (%): average difference in alumni salary between graduation and now, three years after graduation.

Executive Education

Open programmes (12.5): position among European schools that participated in the FT ranking of open-enrolment programmes in 2019.

Custom programmes (12.5): position among European schools that participated in the FT ranking of customised programmes in 2019.

Faculty

Female faculty: percentage of female full-time faculty.

International faculty: percentage of full-time faculty whose citizenship differs from country of employment.

Faculty with doctorates: percentage of full-time faculty with a doctoral degree.

Judith Pizer of Jeff Head Associates acted as the FT’s database consultant

The following rules are specific to the FT composite European ranking:

  • Programmes ranked outside the published tables of 100 MBAs and EMBAs are taken into consideration. They are shown with an asterisk.
  • Schools ranked with a joint programme receive a proportional share of the programme’s indexed score. For example, Essec gets 50 per cent of the score achieved by its joint EMBA programme with Mannheim.
  • If a school has more than one programme in the same ranking, a combined weighted score is awarded. For example, Rotterdam receives 20 per cent of the score achieved by OneMBA and the remaining 80 per cent from its own single programme.
  • Finally, schools must have a minimum total weight of 25 out of a possible 100 for all five rankings to be eligible.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Reuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments section

Follow the topics in this article

Comments