Where Insead leads, others follow. These days, one-year MBA programmes are growing in prominence and quality across Europe and Asia.

In 2004, there were just six one-year programmes ranked in the top 50 of the Financial Times global rankings; in 2009, 15 of the top 50 programmes ran for 12 months or less; Insead still runs the shortest programme at 10½ months. Over the same period the number of two-year programmes in the top 50 dropped from two-thirds (33) to less than half (23).