Who and What Drives MBA Rankings? MBA Compass Compares Businessweek, Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, and US News

    MUNICH, GERMANY, January 10, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- MBA Rankings are used to assess the quality of programs and schools. Depending on the publisher, however, rankings follow different methodologies. The platform Master of Business Administration Compass explored internationally recognized full-time MBA rankings from Businessweek, Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, and US News using three dimensions:

Ranking criteria: Which topics are covered by the ranking?
Sources of information: Who provides the information?
Influence: Which groups and topics are given the highest weighting and have greatest impact on the ranking?

The results show that external people who are not directly associated with a specific program - corporate recruiters, deans and directors - have the greatest impact in the Businessweek and US News rankings. MBA alumni have the greatest impact in the Forbes and the Financial Times rankings. Business schools dominate the Economist ranking.

All five rankings include career-related questions, but only Forbes and Financial Times strongly emphasize the future salary (weighted by 100% and 40% respectively). Forbes assesses the salary five years after graduation and hence seems to best capture the long-term career impact. Financial Times publishes the future salary after transforming the different currencies into US Dollars according to the Purchasing Power Parity Rates (PPP Rates) and excluding full-time jobs in non-profit or education organizations. Two rankings - Financial Times and Businessweek - also include a business school's research capability in the ranking.

Please find the complete article at www.mba-compass.com/Knowledge-MBA-COMPASS/Global-MBA-Ranking-Comparison-of-Master-of-Business-Administration-Rankings.

The new website Master of Business Administration Compass is a platform for the Master of Business Administration. It provides background information on the MBA and individual advice on finding the right MBA program. The MBA Compass belongs to the Master in Management Compass and the Doctor of Business Administration Compass family.

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