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 three major spots in the FT’s 2021 Govt MBA Rating, in a yr marked by continued pandemic disruption to function and review.

HEC’s Paris International EMBA regained major put, forward of — in joint second posture — the Kellogg/HKUST EMBA in Hong Kong, which led the 2020 ranking, and the China Europe International Business enterprise College (Ceibs) Worldwide EMBA in Shanghai.

EMBA alumni three a long time immediately after graduating continued to command higher shell out at a time of small business uncertainty, with modified typical salaries sampled in each 2020 and 2021 up from $276,655 to $281,089.

The amount of college students at primary small business schools analysed by the FT fell a little bit, yr-on-yr. Amongst the 88 schools rated in each 2020 and 2021, the determine went from 7,932 to 7,616, and among the complete of 123 institutions assessed, it dropped from 10,729 to 10,one hundred eighty.

Though several elite small business schools have continued to attract a potent world blend of college students to numerous campuses that they function by itself or in partnership, some scaled-down and regional schools have suffered in recent months with falling intakes.

FT Govt MBA ranking 2021: the major 100

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Come across out which schools are in our ranking of EMBA degrees. Master how the table was compiled.

“We’ve bought some schools that have shuttered their doorways and some with programmes on maintain,” claimed Michael Desiderio, government director of Embac, a trade body representing a greater group of almost three hundred EMBA companies, which include several in the US. “My gut [states], globally, course size is flat or down, but I do not see need falling off a cliff.”

The EMBA commonly gives coaching for administrators and executives who have major prior skilled practical experience and proceed to function though researching element-time. The rankings are dependent on steps these as alumni salaries and how considerably classes assisted them attain their aims three a long time immediately after completion, as effectively as the diversity of pupil and training bodies and the excellent of educational investigation.

The FT’s major three rated programmes — and several some others among the 100 — are presented at numerous campuses all around the planet, which has allowed the schools to offer a wide variety of ordeals and greater adaptability during restrictions on motion.

Each HEC Paris and Ceibs function from their personal web-sites — in France and Qatar, and in China, Ghana and Switzerland, respectively. Kellogg/HKUST’s EMBA is dependent in Hong Kong but delivers college students the possibility to review element of the system at other campuses globally.

Yuan Ding, dean of Ceibs, claimed pandemic-relevant journey restrictions and political shifts in China’s romance with the west had led to “a big localisation”. He has viewed a fall in attendance by international college students and expatriates, offset by rising need from nationals for classes taught in Chinese. “We do not look at globalisation as a fait accompli. You have to present content material with domestically suitable subject areas,” he claimed.

Kathy Harvey, affiliate dean for MBA and government degrees at Oxford’s Saïd Business enterprise College, rated 12th for its EMBA, claimed course sizes were being a small scaled-down in 2020 and 2021 than in advance of the pandemic, but that software volumes and excellent remained potent. She included that employers’ willingness to accommodate distant performing had allowed participants to journey to the United kingdom to attend in-particular person classes immediately after performing remotely from a lodge space first if issue to quarantine.

“We found as a solitary-faculty programme with a large amount of world content material, we were being not as affected as we thought,” she claimed, incorporating that Saïd released “owl and lark” periods so that participants could be a part of or check out recorded discussions at diverse moments.

The rise in on the web understanding has improved the scope for college students and guest speakers to take part in EMBAs. Amongst FT-rated schools, the proportion of woman college students improved in 2021 to a third of the complete, continuing an maximize from a quarter a ten years back. There has been a identical rise in the proportion of woman school.

Eight of the dozen optimum-rated programmes are run in numerous nations around the world, which include the EMBA Worldwide Asia partnership among Columbia, London Business enterprise College and the College of Hong Kong, and the Trium Worldwide MBA, a joint degree presented jointly by HEC Paris, the London College of Economics and New York University’s Stern faculty.

Along with North The us and Europe, China continues to be one of the most common places for EMBAs, despite the fact that rated classes are also presented in places these as Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf, north Africa and Iran.

“The words and phrases for the earlier yr were being resilience and agility,” claimed Elizabeth O’Neill, government director of Trium. “We essential it of our teachers, college students and workers. We were being primary and giving a programme for world leaders who comprehended due to the fact they were being in organisations likely as a result of extremely swift adjust.”

Schools and alumni described potent desire from applicants in understanding about digital capabilities and technologies, and wanting to be taught partly on the web to offer them with greater adaptability to stability review, function and journey.

“The primary pattern has been a need for anything digital,” claimed Andrew Crisp from CarringtonCrisp, an training consultancy. “Students want content material on digital transformation, leadership and anything else. They also want some digital delivery — particularly . . . to prepare in advance of they get to the classroom, [to] cut down the amount of days away from function.”

Courses rated by the FT will have to train at minimum 30 college students and be hosted by a faculty accredited by the US-dependent Affiliation to Progress Collegiate Schools of Business enterprise or the European-dependent Equis technique.