How QS Business School Rankings Helps you Choose the Right Program

How QS Business School Rankings Helps you Choose the Right Program main image

Find out all you need to know about this year's rankings here

There are thousands of business schools around the world and tens of thousands of graduate programs. If you do a simple google search, you’ll find almost 90 million results. So how can prospective students narrow down their list when there are so many quality study opportunities globally?

QS works with hundreds of business schools to ensure future students are provided with aggregated information on the indicators that matter most.

Our unique approach combines program-level detail with several proprietary datasets that map the views of global employers and academics.

On Tuesday, September 25 2018, we’ll release our 2019 Business School Rankings based on the following inputs:

Employability: The vast majority of prospective students tell us career goals are the leading driver for pursuing a business degree. QS surveys thousands of global employers each year to understand which business schools stand out when they review CVs and ultimately make hiring decisions. We use this insight to establish an employer reputation score tied to specific schools. For the Global MBA ranking, in addition to the reputation score, we also consider the employment rate for recent graduates.
Alumni Outcomes: People who want to earn business degrees tend to be highly ambitious. They want their degree to help separate them from the masses and open doors that otherwise might have remained closed. We’ve scoured the web to determine which schools are producing the most successful alumni. Alumni who have established a voice by demonstrating passion. In addition, for MBA candidates, we also give credit to schools who see their graduates go on to start businesses of their own, something that prospective students constantly tell us is important to them.
Value for Money: Let’s face it, business school in many parts of the world, is a big investment in terms of time and money. We’ve built a model that estimates return on investment (ROI) and how long it takes to “breakeven” for each school based upon inputs like tuition, the opportunity cost associated with full-time programs, pre and post salary figures, and likely career progression.
Thought Leadership: Faculty at business school is incredibly important to your knowledge development and program satisfaction. For this indicator, we lean on survey responses from tens of thousands of academics to understand which peer institutions are most respected in business related disciplines. We also track academic papers and research output to determine which schools are leading innovation in specific areas. Finally, we consider the share of faculty members who hold PhDs so you can feel confident you’re learning from people who really understand the material
Diversity: Education is about perspective and it’s hard to gain perspective if everyone already looks and thinks like you. We measure diversity in terms of gender splits and internationalization for both students and faculty in a given program.

At the end of the day, you want to identify a program that is right for you. One that is well positioned to show you new ways to identify and solve problems and to guide you towards meaningful career opportunities. Narrowing your list with program insights from QS is often the first step.

Check back on September 25 when we release the 2019 QS Business School Rankings. In the meantime, visit last year’s results here: