The ranking of management courses - especially MBA programs - and of Business Schools, is common in some countries, e.g. the USA. Such rankings generally appear in the Business press or the business pages of national newspapers. Ostensibly the objective is to inform the market about the standing and repute of courses and Schools. Unfortunately the criteria for the rankings differ so much and frequently are not declared, so such rankings can be rather misleading. Most rankings are of Business Schools and their MBA programs - so they are of limited value to those looking at non-MBA management courses from a range of Providers. (See the site Advice Pages if you are interested in MBA related rankings). Occasionally executive courses specifically are ranked or are one measure of an overall ranking, but even in these cases they tend to be limited to Business Schools - ofter just American Schools.

For these reasons rankings need to be used with caution. They are - at best - just one piece of information about the repute of a Provider and its courses - in general.

We summarize below recent relevant data. If you are aware of any other rankings that are relevent - please let us know.

Financial Times (UK), 14th May 2007

Ranking of Business School Executive ( non MBA ) Courses

(Based mainly on the views of companies, and on 16 or 17 criteria)

Custom Courses (ie courses designed and run for companies)

1- Duke C E; 2- IMD; 3- Harvard; 4- IESE; 5- Babson; 6- Chicago; 7- Columbia; 8- Thunderbird; 9- MIT,Sloan; 10- Ashridge; 11- HEC Paris; 12- North Carolina,Kenan Flagler; =13- Emory,Goizueta; =13- IPADE; 15- Centre for Creative Leadership; 16- IAE; =17- INSEAD; =17- Stockholm Sch of Econs; =17- Penn,Wharton; =20- Boston Univ; =20- UCLA,Anderson; 22- London B School; =23- U of Michigan,Ross; =23- Western Ontario,Ivey; 25- Bocconi; 26- Stanford; =27- Cranfield; =27- Fundaceo Dom Cabral; =29- Texas at Austin,McCombs; =29- Wisconsin Madison; 31- Indiana,Kelley; 32- ESCP-EAP; =33- ESADE; =33- Lancaster; =35- Penn State,Smeal; =35- Maryland,Smith; 37- Oxford,Said; 38- Virginia,Darden; 39- Vlerick Leuven Gent; =40- Henley; =40- Toronto,Rotman; 42- IBMEC Sao Paulo; =43- EM Lyon; =43- ESSEC; =43- St Gallen; 46- Helsinki Sch of Econs; =47- Arizona,Carey; =47- RSM Erasmus; =49- TiasNimbas; =49- Pretoria,Gibs; 51- York,Schulich; =52- Catholic U of Portugal; =52- Hong Kong UST; =52- Instituto Empresa; 55- Macquarie; =56- Carnegie Mellon,Tepper; =56- Un Adolfo Ibanez; 58- Warwick; 59- Wits; 60- Aus Grad Sch of Mgt; 61- Melbourne; =62- EHDEC France; =62- Nyenrode; 64- Manchester; 65- BI Norway

Open Enrolment (ie public) Courses

1- Harvard; 2- Stanford; 3- Virginia,Darden; 4- Chicago; 5- IMD; 6- Center for Creative Leadership; 7- Instituto Empresa; =8- IESE; =8- Northwestern,Kellogg; 10- Babson; 11- UCLA,Anderson; 12- Duke,Fuqua; 13- Columbia; 14- Insead; =15- Queen's; =15- Thunderbird; 17- Fundaceo Dom Cabral; =18- Penn,Wharton; =18- Western Ontario,Ivey; 20- London B Sch; 21- IPADE; 22- MIT,SLoan; =23- Bocconi; =23- St Gallen; 25- Cranfield; 26- Toronto,Rotman; 27- HEC Paris; =28- U of Michigan,Ross; =28- Wisconsin Madison; 30- ESSEC; =31- ESADE; =31- Vlerick Leuven Gent; 33- IAE; 34- ESCP-EAP; =35- Aus Grad Sch of Mgt; =35- EM Lyon; 37- Henley; 38- York,Schulich; 39- Pretoria,Gibs; 40- Helsinki Sch of Econs; 41-Macquarie; =42- Ashridge; =42- Stockholm Sch of Econs; 44- Melbourne; 45- Nyenrode; =46- Catholic U of Portugal; 48- Wits; 49- Solvay; 50- Lagos B School Nigeria

The Financial Times (UK), Dec 4th. 2006

Top European Business Schools

(A COMPOSITE ranking, using data from the 4 rankings produced by the FT in 2006 -1 of which is below- i.e Full time MBA- Jan, Exec MBA- Oct, Non-degree Exec programs- May, plus European Masters programs- Oct. NB Some Schools appear in this composite ranking despite not offering Exec programs or not being ranked by FT in its Open or Custom Exec Program ranking - these are shown in [] here)

1- HEC Paris; 2- London B School; 3- IMD; 4- Instituto Empresa; 5- IESE; 6- ESCP-EAP; 7- Erasmus Rotterdam; =8- Cranfield; =8- Bradford/TiasNimbas; 10- INSEAD; 11- ESADE; 12- Stockholm Sch of Econs; 13- EM Lyon; =14- ESSEC; =14- Vlerick Lueven Gent; 16- Ashridge; 18- [Durham]; 19- [City,Cass]; 20- [Dublin,Smurfit]; 21- [Imperial,Tenaka]; 22- Lancaster; 23- London Sch of Econs; =24- [EDHEC France]; =24- Helsinki Sch of Econs; =24- Oxford,Said; 27- [Copenhagen]; 28- [Bath]; 29- [Grenoble]; 30- SDA Bocconi; 31- [Edinburgh]; 32- [Strathclyde]; =33- Henley; =33- St Gallen; 35- Manchester; 36- [Cambridge,Judge]; =37- [Audencia France]; =37- [Nottingham]; =39- [Rouen France]; =39- [IAG-Louvain Belgium]; =39- [Solvay Belgium]; 42- [Univ of Cologne Germany]; 43- Trinity Dublin; 44- [NHH Norway]; =45- [Birmingham]; =45- [ESC Lille France]; =45- [Leeds]; 48- Nyenrode; 49- [Corvinus Hungary]; =50 [EADA]; =50- [Reims France]; 52- [BI Norway]; =52- [ESC Toulouse France]; 54- [Vienna Univ Austria]; 55- [Warsaw School of Econ Poland]

Business Week (USA), 2004

Ranking of Business School Executive ( non MBA ) Courses

(Based mainly on the views of companies)

Open Enrolment (ie public) Courses

1- Harvard; 2- U of Penn, Wharton; 3- Michigan; 4- Centre for Creative Leadership; 5- INSEAD; 6- Stanford; 7- Columbia, 8- IMD; 9- Northwestern, Kellogg; 10- London Bus School; 11- Virginia; 12- Chicago; 13- Thunderbird; 14- American Management Association; 15- Case Western Reserve; 16- MIT, Sloan; 17- Duke; 18- IESE; 19- New York Univ; 20- North Carolina

Custom Courses (ie courses designed and run for companies)

1- Duke; 2- Harvard; 3- IMD; 4- U of Penn; 5- INSEAD, 6- Virginia; 7- Centre for Creative Leadership; 8- Northwestern; 9- Michigan; 10- Babson; 11- Columbia; 12- Thunderbird; 13- Stanford; 14- London Bus School; 15- Dartmouth; 16- Indiana; 17- Ashridge; 18- Rotman; 19- Case Western Reserve; 20- New York Univ

UK University Research Rating (UK), Dec 2001

Official Research Rating of UK Universities by subject area - Business and Management Studies. www.rae.ac.uk

(A measure of the 'scholarship' of the UIniversity Business Schools, based on quality and volume of their research output)

Top rated Schools:- London Business School; Warwick; Lancaster. Second rated:- Oxford-Said; Manchester B School; UMIST; London School of Economics; Imperial College; City Univ; Nottingham Univ; Leeds Univ; Univ of Bath; Aston Univ; Cambridge. Third rated:- Cranfield; Edinburgh Univ; Strathclyde; Bradford; London Birkbeck; Univ of Birmingham; Brunel; Exeter; Hull; Keele; London Kings; Loughborough; Portsmouth; London Royal Holloway; Sheffield; Surrey; Glasgow; Sterling; Queens Belfast. (All other Universities rated lower)

Long Range Planning Journal (UK), Vol 33, 2000

Ranking of European Business Schools

(Based on Academic Reputation as indicated by their research publications)

1- London Bus School; 2- INSEAD; 3- Tel Aviv. 4- Warwick; 5- Manchester B School; 6- Cambridge; 7- Erasmus; =8- City; =8- Cranfield; =10- London School of Economics; =10- Stockholm, Economics; =12- Katholeke, Belgium; =12- Tilburg; 14- Limburg; =15- Oxford; =15- Reading; =17- Cardiff; =17- Lancaster; =17- Leeds; 20- Groningen; =21- IMD; =21- Nottingham; 23- Hebrew; 24- Strathclyde; =25- Ashridge; =25- Sheffield; =25- Wales,Swansea; =28- Bath; =28- HEC, Paris; =28- Norwegian Mgt; =31- Birmingham; =31- Henley; =31 Southampton; =31- Technion; =35- Amsterdam; =35- Copenhagen; =35- U C Dublin; =38- Aston; =38- Bradford; =38- Cyprus; =38- ESSEC; =38- Free U, Belgium; =38- Haifa; =38- Toulouse; =38- Wageningen

ASIA INC (Hong Kong),October 1999

Ranking of 'Quality of Executive Programs' at Asian Business Schools with full time, English language, MBA Programs

(Based on the opinions of the Business Schools Deans, some CEOs in the region and some readers of the magazine)

1- Asian Institute of Management, Manilla; 2- Australian Grad School of Management; 3- National Univ of Singapore; 4- Melbourne Business School; 5- Monash Mt Eliza, Australia; 6- Indian Inst of Mgt, Ahemdabad; =7- Macquarie Univ, Aus; =7- Nanyang Tech Univ, Singapore; =9- Chinese Univ of Hong Kong; =9- Int Univ of Japan

Business Week (USA),October 1999

Ranking of Business Schools for Non-Degree Executive Courses

(Based on a survey of the opinions of corporate Management Development executives in 273 - mostly American - organizations)

1- Harvard; 2- Michigan; 3- Pennsylvania(Wharton); 4- Northwestern; 5- Stanford; 6- Virginia(Darden); 7- Centre for Creative Leadership(at Greenboro); 8- Duke; 9- INSEAD; 10- Columbia; 11- IMD; 12- MIT(Sloan); 13- North Carolina; 14- Babson; 15- Dartmouth; 16- Chicago; 17- Thunderbird; 18- London Business School; 19- Penn State; 20- Indiana(Kelley)

Ranking of Schools by specialized courses

( Same basis as above)

General Management
1- Harvard; 2- Michigan; 3- Pennsylvania(Wharton); 4- Stanford; 5- Northwestern

Marketing
1- Northwestern; 2- Columbia; 3- Pennsylvania(Wharton); 4- Virginia(Darden); 5- Harvard

IS/E-Commerce
1- MIT; 2- Carnegie Mellon; 3- California Inst of Tech; 4- Stanford; 5- Harvard

Human Resources
1- Michigan; 2- Cornell; 3- Minnesota; 4- Penn State; 5- Center for Creative Leadership

Leadership
1- Center for Creative Leadership; 2- Harvard; 3- Virginis; 4- Pennsylvania(Wharton); 5- Michigan

Innovation
1- Stanford; 2- MIT; 3- Center for Creative Leadership; 4- IMD; 5- Berkeley(Haas)

Accounting
1- Wharton; 2- Chicago: 3- New York(Stern); 4- Texas; 5- Southern Methodist(Cox)

Entrepreneurship
1- Babson; 2- Wharton; 3- Harvard; 4- Stanford; 5- Dartmouth

Global Business
1- INSEAD; 2- Thunderbird; 3- IMD; 4- Harvard; 5- London Business School

Custom Courses
1- The 'Achieve Global' organization; 2- Virginia; 3- Center for Creative Leadership; 4- Duke; 5- IMD

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