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Executive MBA graduates are much more likely to work in industry and manufacturing than younger alumni from full-time MBAs and masters in management courses — and less likely to be employed in finance or consulting.
FT research shows that 17 per cent of graduates of EMBAs, courses for working senior managers, are employed in industry or manufacturing, almost three times as many as their MBA peers. Only 10 per cent of EMBA alumni work in consulting, less than half the proportion of their more junior counterparts from MiM pre-experience degrees.
The gap in average salaries between EMBA and MBA alumni ($220,000 vs $146,000) is similar to that between MBA and MiM graduates ($146,000 vs $67,000), three years after graduation. However MBA alumni have the largest salary boost, up 107 per cent on their generally lower pre-MBA salaries, compared with 59 per cent for EMBA alumni. The increase for MiM alumni is not comparable since it is calculated from their first salary after graduation.
This is the 18th edition of the FT global executive MBA ranking of the best 100 programmes worldwide, based on data collected from business schools and their alumni who graduated in 2015.
This ranking considers corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the first time, with Iese Business School coming top in the new criterion. The Iese EMBA includes more than 150 case studies, which are discussed and debated, and any solution must include CSR principles.
“CSR is at the core of what we do,” says Julia Prats, associate dean for MBA programmes. “Participants understand that every business decision must include a consideration about what impact it will make on people, the environment and society at large.”
This new criterion is based on the proportion of core courses dedicated to CSR, ethics, social and environmental issues. The category carries a ranking weighting of 3 per cent and replaces the number of PhD graduates per school, which had a weighting of 5 per cent.
The remaining two points are shared between the proportions of female faculty and female students, their weight increasing to 4 per cent.
The joint programme delivered by Kellogg School of Management and HKUST Business School is top overall for the third consecutive year and a record ninth time overall. Its alumni have the highest average salary three years after graduation at $507,000, almost $140,000 greater than the second highest paid cohort, from Washington University’s Olin Business School. The EMBA is ranked fourth for work experience and more than half of its alumni are company leaders three years after graduation.
This is one of five joint programmes delivered by Kellogg, which offer good networking opportunities, according to graduates. “The different cohorts at different campuses connected with professionals from around the world,” noted one.
The ranking features four new or returning schools. HEC Paris is this year’s highest “new” entrant, in sixth place. The French school was already in the ranking as one third of Trium, a joint degree with London School of Economics and NYU: Stern, but this year also takes part with its solo programme. Its alumni have an average salary of $322,000, a 68 per cent increase on the pre-EMBA salary.
The Universidad de los Andes, in 95th place, is the first Colombian school to be ranked for a degree programme, as opposed to short executive education courses. It is one of four schools from Latin or South America, including FGV EAESP, one-fifth of the OneMBA joint-programme, ranked at 44.