|
      
| |
MBA program rankings
See also: List of United States business school rankings and Australian MBA Star
Ratings
Each year, well-known business publications such as US News & World Report,
Business Week, Financial Times, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal
publish rankings of selected MBA programs that, while controversial in their
methodology, nevertheless can directly influence the prestige of schools that
achieve high scores.
The MBA degree has become one of the most popular masters' degrees. As more
universities started offering the degree, differences in the quality of schools,
faculty, and course offerings became evident. Naturally, establishing some
criteria of quality is needed to differentiate among MBA programs, especially
for prospective students trying to decide on where to apply. As MBA programs
proliferated, a variety of publications began providing information on them.
Some of these consisted of compilations of information gathered from the
universities offering the degree, usually published in book form. Eventually
periodicals began publishing articles describing various MBA schools and ranking
them according to some perceived quality criteria. One of the most prominent of
these is Business Week, which devotes a biennial issue to ranking MBA programs.
Different methods of varying validity were used to arrive at rankings of MBA
programs. The Gourman Report, for example, did not disclose criteria or ranking
methods,[9] and these reports were criticized for reporting statistically
impossible data, such as no ties among schools, narrow gaps in scores with no
variation in gap widths, and ranks of nonexistent departments.[10] In 1977 The
Carter Report published rankings of MBA programs based on the number of academic
articles published by faculty. Periodicals based their rankings on interviews
with company recruiters who hired MBA graduates, surveys of MBA schools' deans,
polls of students or faculty, and a variety of other means. The defunct MBA
Magazine asked deans to vote on the best programs. The methods of obtaining
ranks often changed from year to year. Initially, rankings included only a small
number of universities consisting of the largest and best known Ivy League and
state schools. There are also many privately compiled rankings, including the
Global Top 100 Business Schools compiled by the QS network.
The ranking of MBA programs has been discussed in articles and on academic Web
sites. Critics of ranking methodologies maintain that any published rankings
should be viewed with caution for the following reasons:
* Rankings limit the population size to a small number of MBA programs and
ignore the majority of schools, many with excellent offerings.
* The ranking methods may be subject to biases and statistically flawed
methodologies (especially for methods relying on subjective interviews of hiring
managers).
* The same list of well-known schools appears in each ranking with some
variation in ranks, so a school ranked as number 1 in one list may be number 17
in another list.
* Rankings tend to concentrate on the school itself, but some schools offer MBA
programs of different qualities (e.g. a school may use highly reputable faculty
to teach a daytime program, and use adjunct faculty in its evening program).
* A high rank in a national publication tends to become a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
* Some leading business schools including Harvard, INSEAD and Wharton provide
limited cooperation with certain ranking publications due to their perception
that rankings are misused.
One study found that objectively ranking MBA programs by a combination of
graduates' starting salaries and average student GMAT score can reasonably
duplicate the top 20 list of the national publications. The study concluded
that a truly objective ranking would be individualized to the needs of each
prospective student.[14] National publications have recognized the value of
rankings against different criteria, and now offer lists ranked different ways:
by salary, GMAT score of students, selectivity, and so forth. While useful,
these rankings still are not tailored to individual needs, and their value is
diminished if they use an incomplete population of schools, fail to distinguish
between the different MBA program types offered by each school, or rely on
subjective interviews.
[edit] MBA degree and current events
The Financial crisis of 2007–2010 has raised new challenges and questions
regarding the MBA degree. Graduates of MBA programs have a reported tendency to
go into Finance shortly after receiving the degree.[15] As the field of Finance
is tightly linked to the global economic downturn, anecdotal evidence suggests
new graduates are stepping onto alternate paths.[16]
Deans at top business schools have acknowledged media and public perception of
the MBA has shown some shifts as a result of the financial crisis.[17] Articles
about public perception related to the crisis range from schools' acknowledgment
of issues related to the training students receive[15][17] to general overviews
of the MBA's role in society.[18]
|
