IESE Business School was founded in 1958 in Barcelona, as the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. Initially, the school offered an array of executive education programs for managers, at a time when the concept of executive education was scarcely known outside of the United States. The establishment of these programs, aimed mainly at experienced business leaders, constituted a landmark in the history of executive education in Europe. Since then, more than 15,000 CEOs, presidents, owners and general managers of leading corporations have taken part in such programs.

Spanish school IESE has retained its position at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of the world's top 100 full-time MBA programmes, beating a number of high-profile American schools. The full rankings will be published in the annual Which MBA? guide, due out on October 13th 2006.

The stellar performance of the school's careers office is one of the main reasons for IESE's triumph: it has a 100% success rate at placing students in jobs within three months of graduation, while students usually command six-figure salaries.

Dublin's Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, has moved up 15 places from a 53rd ranking in 2005.

Despite Europe topping the league table, American institutions dominate the top rankings with schools such as Dartmouth, Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern and Harvard all doing well. Apart from IESE, Switzerland's IMD is the only other non-American school in the top ten.

Bill Ridgers, the editor of Which MBA?, commented: “Even though a European school occupies top spot only a handful of schools can really compete with the best in the US. American schools have the advantage when it comes to history, and, in particular, finance, allowing them to attract the best faculty and students.”

The highest ranked school in Asia and Australasia (excluding INSEAD, which has campuses in both France and Singapore) is the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in 37th place.

Rank	(2005 position in brackets)	School	Country
1	(1)	IESE Business School—University of Navarra	Spain
2	(3)	Dartmouth College—Tuck School of Business	US
3	(4)	Stanford Graduate School of Business	US
4	(6)	University of Chicago—Graduate School of Business	US
5	(5)	IMD—International Institute for Management Development	Switzerland
6	(2)	Northwestern University—Kellogg School of Management	US
7	(n/a)	Harvard Business School	US
8	(7)	New York University—Leonard N Stern School of Business	US
9	(8)	University of Michigan—Stephen M Ross School of Business	US
10	(10)	University of California at Berkeley—Haas School of Business	US
11	(20)	University of Cambridge—Judge Business School	UK
12	(9)	Columbia Business School	US
13	(14)	University of Virginia—Darden Graduate School of Business Administration	US
14	(21)	Henley Management College	UK
15	(15)	UCLA—The Anderson School	US
16	(16)	IE—Instituto de Empresa	Spain
17	(n/a)	University of Pennsylvania—Wharton School	US
18	(13)	Massachusetts Institute of Technology—MIT Sloan School of Management	US
19	(32)	Cranfield School of Management	UK
20	(23)	London Business School	UK
21	(39)	Ashridge	UK
22	(11)	INSEAD	France/Singapore
23	(17)	Cornell University—Johnson Graduate School of Management	US
24	(18)	Yale School of Management	US
25	(24)	Emory University—Goizueta Business School	US
26	(12)	Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School	Belgium
27	(n/a)	University of Washington Business School	US
28	(26)	Carnegie Mellon University—Tepper School of Business	US
29	(25)	Duke University—Fuqua School of Business	US
30	(27)	York University—Schulich School of Business	Canada
31	(28)	Warwick Business School	UK
32	(40)	University of Notre Dame—Mendoza College of Business	US
33	(22)	Hult International Business School	US
34	(29)	Ohio State University—Fisher College of Business	US
35	(34)	ESADE Business School	Spain
36	(31)	University of Oxford—Saïd Business School	UK
37	(82)	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology—School of Business and Management	Hong Kong
38	(53)	University College Dublin—Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business	Ireland
39	(45)	University of Hong Kong—School of Business	Hong Kong
40	(60)	Leeds University Business School	UK
41	(33)	Washington University in St Louis—Olin School of Business	US
42	(38)	University of Bath School of Management	UK
43	(41)	City University—Cass Business School	UK
44	(19)	HEC School of Management, Paris	France
45	(54)	Lancaster University Management School	UK
46	(55)	Indiana University—Kelley School of Business	US
47	(30)	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—Kenan-Flagler Business School	US
48	(48)	Pennsylvania State University—Smeal College of Business	US
49	(59)	Monash University—Graduate School of Business	Australia
50	(56)	University of Minnesota—Carlson School of Management	US
51	(52)	Vanderbilt University—Owen Graduate School of Management	US
52	(51)	University of Maryland—Robert H Smith School of Business	US
53	(49)	Georgetown University—Robert Emmet McDonough School of Business	US
54	(46)	University of Southern California—Marshall School of Business	US
55	(50)	University of Texas at Austin—McCombs School of Business	US
56	(36)	Aston Business School	UK
57	(62)	University of Durham—Durham Business School	UK
58	(35)	The University of Edinburgh Management School	UK
59	(63)	Manchester Business School	UK
60	(71)	University of Wisconsin-Madison—Graduate School of Business	US
61	(43)	University of Birmingham—Birmingham Business School	UK
62	(42)	E.M. Lyon	France
63	(57)	NIMBAS Graduate School of Management	Netherlands
64	(44)	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—College of Business	US
65	(47)	University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business	UK
66	(58)	University of Rochester—William E Simon Graduate School of Business	US
67	(61)	University of Glasgow Business School	UK
68	(75)	Nottingham University Business School	UK
69	(81)	Rice University—Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Management	US
70	(64)	Wake Forest University—Babcock Graduate School of Management	US
71	(84)	Bradford School of Management	UK
72	(67)	Purdue University—Krannert Graduate School of Management	US
73	(73)	University of Pittsburgh—Joseph M Katz Graduate School of Business	US
74	(69)	Southern Methodist University—Cox School of Business	US
75	(93)	International University of Monaco	Monaco
76	(76)	ESCP–EAP European School of Management	France
77	(83)	Nanyang Technological University—Nanyang Business School	Singapore
78	(80)	University of Florida—Warrington College of Business	US
79	(37)	University of Iowa—Henry B Tippie School of Management	US
80	(65)	University of California at Davis—Graduate School of Management	US
81	(74)	Macquarie Graduate School of Management	Australia
82	(77)	University of British Columbia—Sauder School of Business	Canada
83	(89)	RSM Erasmus University	Netherlands
84	(99)	University of Melbourne—Melbourne Business School	Australia
85	(88)	International University of Japan—Graduate School of International Management	Japan
86	(n/a)	Audencia School of Management Nantes	France
87	(n/a)	Brandeis International Business School	US
88	(96)	University of Georgia—Terry College of Business	US
89	(95)	Universiteit Nyenrode—The Netherlands Business School	Netherlands
90	(66)	Imperial College London—Tanaka Business School	UK
91	(90)	Curtin University Graduate School of Business	Australia
92	(85)	University of Newcastle upon Tyne Business School	UK
93	(97)	College of William & Mary—Mason School of Business	US
94	(n/a)	University of South Carolina—Moore School of Business	US
95	(86)	Bocconi University—SDA Bocconi School of Management	Italy
96	(n/a)	HEC Montreal	Canada
97	(87)	University of Otago—School of Business	New Zealand
98	(68)	Indian Institute of Management—Ahmedabad	India
99	(n/a)	National University of Singapore—The NUS Business School	Singapore
100	(n/a)	EADA—Escuela de Alta Dirección y Administración	Spain

Ratings by category

US schools generally do particularly well in the “open new career opportunities” category. This is partly because careers services in the US are often more lavishly funded, better organised and more professionally set up than in the rest of the world. At Chicago, for example, students rated the careers service at 4.7 out of 5—higher than at any other school.

With its outstanding faculty:student ratio and highly-experienced students, Henley Management College in the UK tops the "personal development and educational experience" category. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which boasts one of the world's best-qualified faculties, rates second.

European schools dominate the salary category, with only one non-European school—the US's Hult —ranking in the top ten. This can partly be explained by the state of the European jobs market—indeed, Hult itself is a school renowned for placing its students in jobs outside the US. However it is also because European MBA graduates tend to be older with more work experience. At the number one school in this category, Ashridge in the UK, students have an average of 11 years work experience and can expect a salary in excess of US$200,000 when they leave.

European schools, which often have more international alumni, also score well in the "potential for networking” category.

Top 10 programmes by category

The ranking’s distinctive features and methodology

Over the past 18 years, the Economist Intelligence Unit has regularly surveyed MBA students about why they take an MBA. Four factors consistently emerge:

• to open new career opportunities and/or further current career;
• personal development and educational experience;
• to increase salary;
• the potential to network.

These factors are the basis for the ranking. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks full-time MBA programmes on their ability to deliver these elements to students. It weights each element according to the average importance given to it by students surveyed over the past five years.

The Economist Intelligence Unit ranking differs from other rankings in several important areas. It is:

• More student-centric. It measures the way schools meet the demands students have of an MBA programme.
• All-embracing. It is based on detailed questionnaires completed by business schools and around 20,000 current MBA students and graduates around the world. Key numerical data (such as average GMAT scores) are combined with subjective views from students and graduates (such as their assessment of a business school’s faculty).
• Global. It allows direct comparison of MBA programmes around the world.
• Regional. It compares MBA programmes in three regions: North America, Europe, and Asia and Australasia.
• Flexible. Programmes may be ranked in many ways, producing, for example, tables of the top ten US or Asian and Australasian schools by GMAT score or the top ten US and European school by percentage of foreign students. This facility is available at www.which-mba.com.

To qualify for inclusion in the Economist Intelligence Unit rankings, the schools with full-time MBA programmes that responded to our survey had to meet various thresholds of data provision, as well as attaining a minimum number of responses to a survey gauging the opinion of current students and alumni who graduated within the last three years. These were set as a proportion of the annual intake of students to the programme.

Data were collected during spring 2006 using two web-based questionnaires, one for business schools and one for students and recent graduates. Schools distributed the web address of the latter questionnaire to their own students and graduates. Close to 20,000 students and graduates participated. All data received from schools were subject to verification checks, including, where possible, comparison with historical data, peer schools and other published sources. Student and graduate questionnaires were audited for multiple or false entries.

Memory has been built into the rankings by taking a weighted average of 2006 (50%), 2005 (30%) and 2004 (20%) data to provide a rounded picture of the school. Sudden movements in data such as an increase in the number of overseas alumni clubs, which might not produce an immediate increase in the quality of the educational experience, are thus reflected gradually—much as the improvement would affect students.

The table below summarises the measures used to calculate the rankings together with their respective weightings. Student and alumni ratings make up 20% of the total ranking, and 80% is based on data provided by schools. The statistical methodology adopted for the ranking gives each business school a unique score (known to statisticians as a z-score). Unlike some other rankings, the Economist Intelligence Unit does not include any “equal” schools (for example, four schools ranked equal sixth followed by one ranked tenth). However, it should be noted that differences between some schools might be very slight.

Summary of ranking criteria and weightings(a)