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 a few major spots in the FT’s 2021 Government MBA Rating, in a yr marked by ongoing pandemic disruption to work and study.
HEC’s Paris Worldwide EMBA regained major location, forward of — in joint second placement — the Kellogg/HKUST EMBA in Hong Kong, which led the 2020 ranking, and the China Europe Worldwide Enterprise University (Ceibs) Worldwide EMBA in Shanghai.
EMBA alumni a few decades just after graduating ongoing to command significant pay back at a time of organization uncertainty, with altered ordinary salaries sampled in each 2020 and 2021 up from $276,655 to $281,089.
The variety of students at main organization universities analysed by the FT fell slightly, yr-on-yr. Between the 88 universities ranked in each 2020 and 2021, the figure went from seven,932 to seven,616, and amongst the complete of 123 institutions assessed, it dropped from ten,729 to ten,180.
While lots of elite organization universities have ongoing to entice a solid world combine of students to multiple campuses that they work by itself or in partnership, some smaller sized and regional universities have endured in current months with falling intakes.
FT Government MBA ranking 2021: the major one hundred

Locate out which universities are in our ranking of EMBA degrees. Find out how the desk was compiled.
“We’ve received some universities that have shuttered their doors and some with programmes on keep,” stated Michael Desiderio, govt director of Embac, a trade body symbolizing a greater group of just about 300 EMBA companies, such as lots of in the US. “My intestine [states], globally, class sizing is flat or down, but I really don’t see need falling off a cliff.”
The EMBA generally gives teaching for managers and executives who have considerable prior qualified practical experience and carry on to work when learning part-time. The rankings are based mostly on steps these types of as alumni salaries and how far courses served them accomplish their aims a few decades just after completion, as effectively as the diversity of college student and educating bodies and the good quality of tutorial study.
The FT’s major a few ranked programmes — and lots of others amongst the one hundred — are offered at multiple campuses all around the entire world, which has permitted the universities to present a wide vary of activities and bigger versatility in the course of restrictions on motion.
The two HEC Paris and Ceibs work from their very own web sites — in France and Qatar, and in China, Ghana and Switzerland, respectively. Kellogg/HKUST’s EMBA is based mostly in Hong Kong but presents students the prospect to study part of the course at other campuses around the world.
Yuan Ding, dean of Ceibs, stated pandemic-associated journey restrictions and political shifts in China’s relationship with the west had led to “a massive localisation”. He has seen a slide in attendance by overseas students and expatriates, offset by mounting need from nationals for courses taught in Chinese. “We really don’t take into account globalisation as a fait accompli. You have to offer content with domestically pertinent matters,” he stated.
Kathy Harvey, associate dean for MBA and govt degrees at Oxford’s Saïd Enterprise University, ranked 12th for its EMBA, stated class dimensions have been a minimal smaller sized in 2020 and 2021 than in advance of the pandemic, but that software volumes and good quality remained solid. She additional that employers’ willingness to accommodate distant functioning had permitted contributors to journey to the British isles to go to in-individual courses just after functioning remotely from a lodge home initial if matter to quarantine.
“We identified as a single-college programme with a great deal of world content, we have been not as affected as we thought,” she stated, incorporating that Saïd launched “owl and lark” periods so that contributors could be a part of or watch recorded conversations at distinctive times.
The increase in on-line discovering has greater the scope for students and visitor speakers to take part in EMBAs. Between FT-ranked universities, the proportion of female students greater in 2021 to a third of the complete, continuing an improve from a quarter a ten years ago. There has been a related increase in the proportion of female faculty.
Eight of the dozen greatest-ranked programmes are run in multiple nations around the world, such as the EMBA Worldwide Asia partnership involving Columbia, London Enterprise University and the University of Hong Kong, and the Trium Worldwide MBA, a joint diploma offered jointly by HEC Paris, the London University of Economics and New York University’s Stern college.
Alongside North America and Europe, China remains one of the most common places for EMBAs, although ranked courses are also offered in places these types of as Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf, north Africa and Iran.
“The terms for the previous yr have been resilience and agility,” stated Elizabeth O’Neill, govt director of Trium. “We essential it of our instructors, students and personnel. We have been main and giving a programme for world leaders who understood due to the fact they have been in organisations going by very immediate alter.”
Schools and alumni claimed solid desire from candidates in discovering about digital abilities and systems, and seeking to be taught partly on-line to present them with bigger versatility to balance study, work and journey.
“The major craze has been a need for everything digital,” stated Andrew Crisp from CarringtonCrisp, an schooling consultancy. “Students want content on digital transformation, leadership and everything else. They also want some digital shipping and delivery — particularly . . . to put together in advance of they get to the classroom, [to] lower the variety of days absent from work.”
Courses ranked by the FT should educate at the very least 30 students and be hosted by a college accredited by the US-based mostly Association to Progress Collegiate Schools of Enterprise or the European-based mostly Equis procedure.