CRKJ6N aerial view of The London Business School, Regent's Park, London NW1
Consistent performer: it is the fourth year in a row that London Business School in Regent’s Park has topped the ranking © Alamy

This is the 14th annual Financial Times ranking of European business schools. It is a composite ranking based on the combined performance of Europe’s leading schools across the five main rankings of programmes published by the FT in 2017: MBA, Executive MBA, Masters in Management (MiM) and the two rankings of non-degree executive education programmes. The online MBA and masters in finance rankings are not included.

A European schools rank is produced for each of these main rankings. MBA, EMBA and MiM account for 25 per cent each of each school’s total performance. For executive education, the scores obtained for customised and open programmes each account for 12.5 per cent.

For the first time, the FT has also produced two top-20 rankings for Asia/Australia and the Americas. Methodology for Asia/Australia is identical to Europe’s. The FT did not consider the MiM in the US, where there are fewer programmes. The weights are spread equally between MBA, EMBA and executive education.

The regional rankings measure the schools’ quality and breadth of programmes. Schools must participate in all five rankings in order to be eligible for a full score. Schools that take part in only one ranking are eligible for a quarter of the total score.

An indexed score is created for each ranking. These scores are then added together, according to the weighting above, creating a combined total for each school. This overall score is divided by the number of rankings in which a school features to calculate an average score — a derived measure of quality. This is added to the combined total score to generate a final score by which the schools are ranked.

Scores are not simply based on aggregation of published ranking positions. They are calculated using Z-scores — formulas that reflect the range between the top and bottom school — for the individual criteria that make up each component ranking.

The following rules are specific to the FT composite European ranking:

  • Programmes ranked outside the published table of 100 MBAs are taken into consideration. They are shown with an asterisk.
  • Schools ranked with a joint programme receive a proportional share of the programme’s indexed score. For example, Essec gets 50 per cent of the score achieved by its joint EMBA programme with Mannheim.
  • If a school has more than one programme in the same ranking, a combined weighted score is awarded. For example, Rotterdam receives 20 per cent of the score achieved by OneMBA and the remaining 80 per cent from its own single programme.
  • Finally, schools must have a minimum total weight of 25 per cent to be eligible.

Key to the 2017 ranking

Weights for ranking criteria are shown in brackets as a percentage. All other data are for information only.

MBA

European rank (25): position among European schools that took part in the 2017 FT global MBA ranking.

Salary today $: average alumni salary three years after graduation, US$ by purchasing power parity (PPP). Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase %: average difference in alumni salary pre-MBA to today, three years after graduation.

EMBA

European rank (25): Position among European schools that took part in the 2017 EMBA ranking.

Salary today $: average three years after graduation, US$ PPP. Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase %: average difference in alumni salary pre-EMBA to today, three years after graduation.

Masters in Management

European rank (25): position among European schools that participated in 2017 FT MiM ranking.

Salary today $: average salary three years after graduation, US$ PPP. Includes weighted data from the current and two previous years, where available.

Salary increase %: average difference in alumni salary between graduation and today, three years on.

Executive Education

Open programmes (12.5): Position among European schools that participated in the FT ranking of open-enrolment programmes in 2017.

Custom programmes (12.5): Position among European schools that participated in the FT ranking of customised programmes in 2017.

Faculty

Female faculty: percentage of full-time faculty.

International faculty: percentage of full-time faculty whose citizenship differs from country of employment.

Faculty with doctorates: percentage of full-time faculty with a doctoral degree.

Judith Pizer of Jeff Head Associates is the FT’s database consultant

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