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 top rated spots in the FT’s 2021 Govt MBA Ranking, in a calendar year marked by ongoing pandemic disruption to get the job done and review.
HEC’s Paris Intercontinental EMBA regained top rated place, forward of — in joint 2nd situation — the Kellogg/HKUST EMBA in Hong Kong, which led the 2020 ranking, and the China Europe Intercontinental Organization College (Ceibs) Worldwide EMBA in Shanghai.
EMBA alumni three years following graduating ongoing to command superior shell out at a time of small business uncertainty, with altered ordinary salaries sampled in both of those 2020 and 2021 up from $276,655 to $281,089.
The selection of college students at leading small business faculties analysed by the FT fell somewhat, calendar year-on-calendar year. Among the 88 faculties rated in both of those 2020 and 2021, the figure went from seven,932 to seven,616, and amid the full of 123 institutions assessed, it dropped from 10,729 to 10,a hundred and eighty.
Whilst quite a few elite small business faculties have ongoing to bring in a sturdy international combine of college students to multiple campuses that they work by yourself or in partnership, some lesser and regional faculties have endured in new months with falling intakes.
FT Govt MBA ranking 2021: the top rated one hundred

Obtain out which faculties are in our ranking of EMBA levels. Understand how the desk was compiled.
“We’ve bought some faculties that have shuttered their doorways and some with programmes on maintain,” reported Michael Desiderio, executive director of Embac, a trade overall body symbolizing a greater group of nearly 300 EMBA providers, including quite a few in the US. “My gut [suggests], globally, class dimensions is flat or down, but I never see desire falling off a cliff.”
The EMBA generally presents coaching for professionals and executives who have considerable prior skilled knowledge and proceed to get the job done when finding out portion-time. The rankings are centered on measures this kind of as alumni salaries and how far classes aided them obtain their aims three years following completion, as perfectly as the range of scholar and educating bodies and the good quality of academic exploration.
The FT’s top rated three rated programmes — and quite a few many others amid the one hundred — are available at multiple campuses all over the globe, which has allowed the faculties to deliver a wide selection of encounters and bigger adaptability during restrictions on motion.
Both equally HEC Paris and Ceibs work from their very own internet sites — in France and Qatar, and in China, Ghana and Switzerland, respectively. Kellogg/HKUST’s EMBA is centered in Hong Kong but offers college students the probability to review portion of the study course at other campuses around the globe.
Yuan Ding, dean of Ceibs, reported pandemic-relevant journey restrictions and political shifts in China’s marriage with the west had led to “a big localisation”. He has found a tumble in attendance by overseas college students and expatriates, offset by growing desire from nationals for classes taught in Chinese. “We never contemplate globalisation as a fait accompli. You have to give content material with locally applicable subject areas,” he reported.
Kathy Harvey, associate dean for MBA and executive levels at Oxford’s Saïd Organization College, rated twelfth for its EMBA, reported class dimensions have been a minor lesser in 2020 and 2021 than right before the pandemic, but that software volumes and good quality remained sturdy. She additional that employers’ willingness to accommodate distant doing work had allowed individuals to journey to the United kingdom to show up at in-man or woman classes following doing work remotely from a hotel home very first if topic to quarantine.
“We located as a single-faculty programme with a good deal of international content material, we have been not as affected as we considered,” she reported, introducing that Saïd introduced “owl and lark” sessions so that individuals could be part of or enjoy recorded conversations at unique times.
The increase in on-line understanding has amplified the scope for college students and visitor speakers to participate in EMBAs. Among FT-rated faculties, the proportion of woman college students amplified in 2021 to a third of the full, continuing an improve from a quarter a decade back. There has been a very similar increase in the proportion of woman college.
Eight of the dozen greatest-rated programmes are operate in multiple nations, including the EMBA Worldwide Asia partnership concerning Columbia, London Organization College and the University of Hong Kong, and the Trium Worldwide MBA, a joint diploma available jointly by HEC Paris, the London College of Economics and New York University’s Stern faculty.
Along with North The us and Europe, China stays just one of the most well-liked places for EMBAs, despite the fact that rated classes are also available in places this kind of as Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf, north Africa and Iran.
“The terms for the past calendar year have been resilience and agility,” reported Elizabeth O’Neill, executive director of Trium. “We required it of our academics, college students and personnel. We have been leading and offering a programme for international leaders who recognized simply because they have been in organisations going by amazingly speedy modify.”
Universities and alumni noted sturdy fascination from applicants in understanding about electronic capabilities and technologies, and wanting to be taught partly on-line to deliver them with bigger adaptability to balance review, get the job done and journey.
“The primary development has been a desire for every little thing electronic,” reported Andrew Crisp from CarringtonCrisp, an instruction consultancy. “Students want content material on electronic transformation, management and every little thing else. They also want some electronic shipping and delivery — particularly . . . to prepare right before they get to the classroom, [to] lessen the selection of times away from get the job done.”
Courses rated by the FT need to teach at minimum 30 college students and be hosted by a faculty accredited by the US-centered Association to Progress Collegiate Universities of Organization or the European-centered Equis method.