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Financial Times EMBA Ranking 2021: Global Executive MBA Once Again Among the Top 35 Worldwide
October 18, 2021
#34 worldwide (#6 in EU) in this year's FT EMBA ranking
In this year’s Financial Times (FT) Executive MBA (EMBA) Ranking, the Global Executive MBA was ranked 34th among the 100 programs considered for the ranking. It was thus placed among the top 50 MBAs for the fourth and, after 2020, among the top 35 for the second time in a row. This brings the WU Executive Academy’s flagship program to rank 6 in the EU and a marvelous rank 2 in the German-speaking (DACH) countries. The program did particularly well in three categories that are of special interest for (prospective) students: “annual salary” (US$ 219,000), “international study experience” (#10), and “work experience” (#11).
The Financial Times MBA Ranking has been considered the Champions League of globally leading business schools for many years. Only a minuscule percentage of MBA programs offered worldwide manage to meet the FT’s demanding criteria to enter the ranking, which is why people considering MBA studies pay as close attention to its results as to leading international accreditations such as AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS.
Consistently Among the Top 35 Worldwide
“I am overjoyed about this great placement because it clearly shows that the Global Executive MBA’s course offer hits the spot. This is further confirmed by the high quality of our students, which was the main reason why we did so well this year. That we were ranked 32nd last year and 34th this year really drives home the fact that the top results of our flagship program were not outliers but that the tireless efforts of my team are truly paying off,” Barbara Stöttinger, Dean of the WU Executive Academy, says. She adds, “We have risen to the 6th place in the EU (#2 in the DACH region), which is remarkable because we have surpassed some truly excellent programs by internationally renowned universities like ESMT Berlin, the University of St. Gallen, or the University of Pennsylvania: Wharton, which was ranked 24th only last year.”
Rector Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger was also very happy about the impressive rating of the Global Executive MBA:
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger
- Rector of WU Wien
Internationally renowned rankings such as the one by the highly regarded Financial Times help prospective students identify which of the numerous providers are offering top quality. This outcome adds to other remarkable placements already achieved this year, such as the FT Master in Management Ranking or the QS Master Rankings. All of this goes to show that the Vienna University of Economics and Business’ study offer places it among the world’s leading universities in this field.
Among the Top 10 in Important Categories
Once again, this year’s ranking was based on 16+1 categories that focus on program quality and career development prospects of alumni. The Global Executive MBA did even better than last year in nine categories. “Overall satisfaction” is a new category with a 10-point scale that was added last year. At 9.75 points, the Global Executive MBA scored by 0.63 points higher than in 2020, even faring better than the top-five MBAs of the current ranking.
Particularly the results in two categories are reason to celebrate for the program’s alumni: The average annual salary increased by 7% year-over-year, reaching US$ 219,000. And with regard to “international study experience", the Global Executive MBA moved up two spots to #10 (#4 in the EU, # 1 in DACH), leaving behind the EMBA programs of both the Kellog/HKUST Business School and Ceibs, which are ranked 2nd and 3rd in the world.
In the “work experience” category, the program took the 11th place worldwide (#4 in the EU, #1 in DACH), ahead of the top-ten programs by EMBA-Global: Columbia/LBS and the ESCP Business School.
View the full Financial Times Executive MBA Report
View the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2021 here.