When Will Asia Reach Number 1 In MBA Rankings?

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China is predicted to become the largest economy in the world before 2030, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). But what about China’s business schools – are they on track to overtake Stanford, INSEAD, Wharton, LBS and Harvard?

Stanford‘s rise to the top of the FT Global MBA Ranking 2018 is sure to grab the headlines. With GSB graduates reporting eye-popping salary figures– the first time a business school has reported average alumnus salary over $200k three years after graduation – this result was to be expected. The FT rewards weighted salary (20%) and salary increase (20%) more than any other MBA ranking, and combined with Stanford’s strong showing for research (a further 10%) the school has reached the #1 position for only the second time since the FT launched the ranking in 1999.

After two invaluable years at #1, INSEAD should not be too disappointed with second place. At Fortuna Admissions we have seen a sharp rise in enquiries over the past 24 months with the global recognition the FT results has boosted. The school also benefits from an excellent ROI for the increasingly popular one-year course format preferred by the majority of European and Asian business schools. And the much-reported Trump effect continues to encourage a significant number of business school applicants to look beyond the US for their MBA experience.

But this result is part of a wider trend that emerged in the MBA ranking published by The Economist last November, which sees US schools in the ascendancy with the strengthening US dollar of the past three years. Harvard Business School is the only M7 school to have lost ground in the FT ranking, in part because of lower faculty research output that the FT measures each year. In fact there is not a US school other than HBS that lost places in the top 20.

Booth and MIT Sloan have seen solid gains, while UC Berkeley Haas continues to make a great case to now refer to an M8 club. This FT result will not do those claims any harm. One of the stand-out results among the top US schools come from Cornell Johnson, and the first signs that the strategy to bring the school closer to recruiters in NYC is paying dividends. UCLA Anderson has also had a great year on the back of the continued strong performance of the Southern California economy, and close ties to content-focused tech firms such as Netflix. And the nation’s capital now has a school in the top 30. Georgetown McDonough is something of a hidden gem among the top US schools, and the great placement rates and competitive salaries are part of this year’s strong showing…