The Economist magazine has ranked the Schulich School of Business at York University among the top 10 MBA programs in the world. The rankings, which were released Friday by the prestigious publication, ranked Schulich ninth overall, up from 10th place the previous year. Schulich was the only Canadian business school to make the top 10.

Right: The Schulich School of Business

Schulich’s MBA program ranked ahead of those offered by MIT (Sloan), the London Business School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and INSEAD, and behind Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley and Harvard. Schulich placed first among Canadian schools, second in the world among non-US schools and eighth among North American schools. To view the complete results, click here. 

The Economist survey is the only major global ranking that rates business schools on criteria deemed most important to MBA students and alumni – everything from diversity of career opportunities to earning potential and networking opportunities. According to The Economist, the magazine ranks full-time MBA programs on "their ability to provide students with the things that they themselves cite as most important" and weighs each element according to the average importance given to it by students. Student and alumni ratings make up 20 per cent of the survey and 80 per cent is based on quantitative data such as student quality, faculty quality, post-MBA salary and salary increase, and breadth of internationalism of alumni.

During its 23-year history, The Economist survey has tracked and measured the opinions of approximately 250,000 MBA students and alumni on categories they consider to be most important, including:

• the ability of a school to open new career opportunities;
• personal development and educational experience;
• salary increase; and,
• the potential to network, as measured by the internationalism of the school’s alumni and the breadth of its alumni network.

These are some of the key highlights regarding Schulich in this year’s The Economist ranking:

• Schulich ranked second in the world in the category of faculty quality, which looked at factors such as the student/faculty ratio and faculty rating by students (99 per cent of Schulich faculty have a PhD).
• Schulich ranked fourth in the world in the category of recruiter diversity (the number of industries represented by recruiters who hire Schulich graduates) – a reflection of the broad range of industry and functional specializations offered at the school (18 in total).
• Schulich was ranked fifth in the world in the category of salary increase – a measurement that captures the percentage by which salaries increased pre-MBA to post-MBA. Within three months of graduation, Schulich graduates reported an average 127 per cent increase over their pre-MBA salary.
• Schulich was ranked eighth in the world in the broad category of personal development and educational experience, which encompasses faculty quality, student quality, student diversity and educational experience. In the specific category of educational experience, Schulich ranked second in the world. This category included a student assessment of the program and the range of electives offered, the school facilities and the number of overseas exchange opportunities.
• Schulich ranked fourth in the world in the category of internationalism of alumni – a key consideration for MBA graduates interested in seeking global opportunities after graduation. (Schulich has more than 84 alumni chapters in 61 countries and more than 22,000 alumni working in over 90 countries.)

"We're once again extremely proud to be ranked among the very best business schools by one of the world's most respected business publications," said Schulich Dean Dezsö Horváth (left) on Friday following the release of the survey results. "Today's result comes on the heels of another top 10 global MBA ranking for Schulich several weeks ago, when the Aspen Institute rated Schulich’s MBA program number two in the world in a survey that identified which schools are doing the best job of preparing future business leaders for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

“We believe The Economist and Aspen Institute rankings are largely the result of the quality of our students and faculty, our diverse, innovative and forward-looking curriculum, and our strong international orientation," said Horváth.

Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.