China Business School Ranked Highly
It is the seventh time for the Financial Times to publish its annual executive MBA rankings, but it's the first time for the two "C"s - China and Collaboration - to feature so prominently on the list.
Looking at the top 25 programs listed this year, four of them are run by a Chinese business school, or at least, carry out its course in China.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology business school's joint program with Kellogg School of Management, University of Northwestern of the United States, ranked top this year among the 95 listed EMBA programs.
It is followed by the Washington-Fudan EMBA program run by Washington University's Olin business school and Fudan University's School of Management, which ranked one spot higher at the seventh place in its second appearance on the list.
The EMBA program by the Chinese University of Hong Kong has remained in 15th place for the last three consecutive years.
And China Europe International Business School, which holds the world's largest EMBA program with an annual intake of 630 students, also earned 23rd place.
Business school deans love to attributed Chinese program's high ranking to China's favorable mega economic environment, which fuels their graduates' payments accordingly.
"Salary increase of our graduates are good, because of the fast-growing economy in China," said Patrick Moreton, managing director of the Fudan-Washington program, adding that graduates' salary and pay rises are strong factors in the FT's MBA and EMBA rankings.
At Kellogg-HKUST program, graduates' salary reached the US$315,397 per year - the highest amount among that of all listed programs.
The Washington-Fudan program was crowned as the runner-up, with a second highest annual income of US$295,079.
Critics might be skeptical about the possible "proliferation effect" brought by the purchasing power parity to the salary amount, as graduates' actual payment in different currencies need to be multiple with a certain figure before they were calculated as US dollars in the ranking.
However, almost no one can deny the huge talent shortage brought by robust economic growth of China in the past decades, which has greatly boosted the country's business management education development.
Also this time, collaborative programs further proved their worth by their rising ranking positions. Seven of the top 20 EMBAs are collaborative initiatives, compared with five last year and only three in 2005.
The top-ranked Kellogg-HKUST program is again a strong evidence, as well as the Trium Global EMBA of the second place and the joint venture by the Columbia Business School and London Business School ranked fourth.
James Little, academic director of the Washington-Fudan program, said that knowledge and great faculty now spread worldwide, so no great university can remain great until they partner with other premier universities.
"It is clear to us that the great universities of tomorrow will be central nodes in the networks of institutions spread all over the world," he said.
But different voices also emerged, mainly opposing the "fly-in" professor model that prevails in collaborative programs.
"Joint programs clearly meet a need in the market, but we cannot take short-cuts," said Liang Neng, EMBA director at CEIBS.
"Our vision is to build a permanent, China-based faculty with proven China expertise. This will allow us to make a significant contribution to the development of China's economy," he said.
from: www.whichmba.net
