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In October - November 2000 we carried out some research into UK MBA schools. We wanted
to know what were the relative reputations of MBA schools across the UK. This meant not just
the top MBA programmes but also the good national MBA schools as well.
We researched MBA recruiters (in house and agency) and MBA graduates and candidates.
The ratings from this survey (and a comparison with
the FT 2001 research) are repeated in this commentary and are also available
UK MBA RANKINGS as a single table.
In this report, we've divided up the rankings into a number of divisions. The first is that of
business schools which have a truly international reputation.
Tier 1: Schools with international reputation
There's no doubt about which is the top MBA school in the UK. By a significant margin it is still
London Business School (LBS). Arguably it is the only truly international class school in the
country and ranks in the top 10 international schools worldwide. Within
Europe its main competitors remain INSEAD and, to some extent, IMD rather than other UK schools.
Our research
on european schools, that of the FT, Business Week, etc all indicate that LBS and INSEAD are
broadly comparable in international reputation. For example in the FT 2000 research LBS came out slightly
ahead of INSEAD, while in 2001 INSEAD came slightly ahead of LBS. This means that in the UK we
have included only LBS as a "tier one" school.
Of course LBS is aware of this
advantage and fees for both the part time and full time courses are £36,000 ($53,000).
Fees for INSEAD's MBA course (it offers only a full time MBA) are under £20,000 ($30,000).
Tier 2: Schools with european or top national reputations
Below LBS in the UK tables are the schools with excellent national and wider European
reputations but which are less well known outside Europe.
The key schools in this second tier in the UK are Cranfield, Imperial,
Warwick and Manchester. These schools often have especially good reputations for key areas,
such as Cranfield (manufacturing and marketing) and Imperial (research). Based on
anecdotal reports the marketing modules at Cranfield are at least equal to those at LBS.
The other schools in this tier are City, Oxford (Said), Cambridge (Judge), Ashridge, Henley,
and Edinburgh University. Our research here shows differences from the FT research which
places Oxford (Said) and Edinburgh (at 2nd and 6th respectively) within the key schools in
this tier. For this reason we have combined these schools into this second tier.
Both schools performed well in our research (7th and 11th respectively) and we've
heard some very good comments on the Edinburgh MBA. But we're
surprised that Oxford's Said school has been rated as the 2nd best in the UK. It's
a good course, but has only recently started and it still seems to early to have earned this
position.
The schools in the bottom half of this tier all offer very good quality education,
but for those of you looking for "calling card" MBAs they won't offer the recognition
(especially at the international level) of schools higher up the rankings.
Some of the schools in this list are also well known for particular areas.
To take one example City University offers a range of MBAs (including specialist MBAs in
subjects such as marketing) and has very strong links to financial institutions in the City
of London.
As mentioned above, we believe it is possible that the rankings of some schools,
such as Oxford and Cambridge and perhaps Bristol, may have
been boosted by a number of factors. While doubtless offering excellent courses it is
possible that the placings have been boosted by the recruiting policies of some major
recruiters (such as McKinsey who have the Oxbridge business schools on their preferred list)
and also by their deserved reputation in other areas. Overall we think it's still too early
to properly evaluate the quality and true ranking of the MBAs from both Oxford and Cambridge.
The Bristol MBA has been "transfered" to Edinburgh University Management School so while the
Bristol MBA appears in our research Bristol appears to have no further plans to offer their
own MBA.
Tier 3: Good National MBA Schools
Tier three schools are similar in both research studies. Our research indicates that
Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol (see above), Lancaster, Bradford, Strathclyde, Kingston,
Oxford Brookes, Bath, Newcastle, Durham, Exeter, Manchester Metro, Nottingham Trent,
Southampton, and Sheffield Hallam all rank in this tier. The FT research shows a similar
picture, as can be seen from the FT rankings alongside our own. The FT research also included
Nottingham University, which we were surprised not to see in our own research.
While no new universities (former polytechnics) appeared in the FT research a number
showed up in ours, the highest placed being Kingston (18th) and Oxford Brookes (19th).
As a final note, the research on MBA schools, whether ours or another publications only
give a guide to the reputation of schools. It does not suggest that MBAs towards the bottom
of the table are "bad" MBAs, quite the opposite. In the UK alone there are nearly 100
institutions offering MBAs, often in a number of different formats (part time, full time, distance
learning, modular, specialist MBAs in marketing, finance, etc). Therefore the total number
of MBAs in the UK alone is in the hundreds.
Our main ranking research covers less than 30 schools in the UK, while the our expanded
list covers the top 40 schools. All of these schools, therefore are in the top half of
all UK MBA providers.
Our list of all the schools offering MBAs in the UK also highlights the top 40 MBA
schools in the UK UK MBA SCHOOLS. In another
version of this, we combine our rankings with those of the FT to produce a ranked list of
the top 39 (excl Bristol) schools with links to the MBA and postgrad study pages
UK MBA SCHOOL LINKS.
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