Times Higher Education (THE) is to launch a new set of global business school rankings in partnership with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
THE and WSJ will produce a set of business school rankings focusing on three key postgraduate programmes – MBAs, Masters in Finance, and Masters in Management. THE and WSJ will thus build on their collaboration on the Wall Street Journal/THE/College Rankings, which rank more than 1,000 US universities and colleges based on teaching excellence and graduate success.
The new rankings are scheduled to be published in spring 2018, and the detailed methodology will be finalised after extensive consultation with Masters students, alumni, and business schools across the world.
A core component of the ranking will be a worldwide survey of recent business school graduates, developed from the THE Student Survey used to power the WSJ/THE College Rankings. The survey evaluates how much students have been intellectually engaged and challenged by their teaching, and how they apply their learning, as well as examining key questions such as their interaction with staff, the real-world applications of their learning, and whether they would recommend their course to others.
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Other aspects of the rankings will look at the teaching resources available to students, the environment in which students work and, crucially, how successful graduates of each of the programmes are (the career success of graduates from each programme). Matt Symonds, Editorial Consultant for the Global Business School Rankings, said: “There has been tremendous growth in global demand for the Masters in Management and Masters in Finance, but very few opportunities for potential applicants to take a deeper dive into the strengths of each programme and to evaluate graduate outcomes. Our survey of hundreds of business school applicants from more than 35 countries highlights the need for better and more reliable information. We are also consulting with schools to ensure that the MBA and master’s rankings provide the same level of transparency and credibility as THE’s World University Rankings.
Why another business school ranking?
THE’s research has shown that, although applicants to business school are well served by rankings, many are superficial projects that often fail to provide high-quality information and insights. THE has identified an opportunity to produce an innovative new set of business school rankings, in partnership with WSJ, focusing on three key postgraduate programmes – MBAs, Masters in Finance, and Masters in Management.
Read: Do Rankings Reflect the Quality of Business Education?
THE and WSJ have embarked on a consultation spanning the world’s business schools and their students to better understand how a new ranking could be developed that better assists students seeking the best schools and courses to meet their ambitions, especially those individuals planning to study in another country. At the same time, the partners plan to use their experience of developing robust rankings methodologies to create a balanced set of indicators that better reflects the wealth of expertise, experience, and specialisation available from business schools all over the world.
What kind of performance will be measured?
The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education business programme ranking will measure performance through four pillars, similar to those used in the WSJ/THE College Rankings: Resources, Outcomes, Engagement and Environment.
The Engagement pillar will focus on a worldwide survey of recent business school graduates, developed from the THE Student Survey used to power the WSJ/THE College Rankings. It will assess how much students have been intellectually engaged and challenged by their teaching, how they applied their learning to the real world, as well as examining key questions such as the quality of their interaction with staff and whether they would recommend their course to others.
The Environment pillar will measure the diversity and inclusiveness of the school’s environment, and the Resources pillar will focus on the resources available to the students at each school: staff numbers and quality, career support, and cohort level.
Finally, the Outcomes pillar will quantify often hard-to-measure concepts such as the value of the professional network students are introduced to, their employment opportunities and career success, and the school’s contribution to social good. A survey of employers will add a further dimension to give their view on how well business schools educate future business leaders.
Source: Times Higher Education
