FT Executive MBA Ranking 2026: methodology, key and profiles

{"text":[[{"start":10.96,"text":"This is the 26th edition of the FT’s annual ranking of the world’s top 100 Executive MBA programmes for senior working managers."}],[{"start":19.34,"text":"Participation is voluntary and at the business school’s request. EMBAs must meet certain criteria to be eligible. First, the school must be accredited by either the US’s Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or Europe’s Equis. The EMBA must be cohort-based, with students starting and finishing together. A total of 129 programmes took part in the ranking process, including eight joint degrees delivered by more than one school."}],[{"start":44.8,"text":"Data is collected by two online surveys, the first completed by schools and the second by alumni who completed EMBAs in 2023. For a school to be eligible, at least 20 per cent of alumni must respond, with a minimum of 20 responses. This year, the FT considered schools with a lower response rate. The survey was completed by 4,466 alumni — an overall response rate of about 39 per cent."}],[{"start":70.48,"text":"Alumni responses inform six ranking criteria: salary today; salary increase; career progress; work experience; aims achieved; and alumni network, which measures the quality of networks, as rated by surveyed graduates. Together, they account for 52 per cent of the ranking’s weight. The first two criteria on alumni salaries count for 31 per cent."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":92,"text":"Salaries of full-time students are removed. The remaining salaries are converted to US$ using the latest purchasing power parity (PPP) rates supplied by the IMF. The highest and lowest salaries are removed and the average current salary is calculated for each school. Salary increase is calculated according to the difference in average salary from before the EMBA to three years after completing it. Half of the ranking weight is applied to the absolute increase and the other half to the percentage increase relative to pre-EMBA pay."}],[{"start":120.16,"text":"If available, alumni criteria are drawn from the past three surveys. Responses from the 2026 survey carry 50 per cent of the total weight and those from 2025 and 2024 each account for 25 per cent. Excluding salary-related criteria, if only two years of data are available, then the weighting is split 60:40 if data is from 2026 and 2025, or 70:30 if from 2026 and 2024. For salary figures, the weighting is 50:50 for two years’ data, to avoid inflation-related distortions."}],[{"start":154.42,"text":"Information from schools informs 10 criteria that account for 38 per cent of the ranking. The ESG category is partly based on the proportion of core courses dedicated to environmental, social and governance issues and carries a weight of 3 per cent. Alumni evaluation of ESG teaching is also included."}],[{"start":171.52,"text":"The weighting for faculty and student gender diversity is five per cent each. For these gender diversity criteria, schools with a 50:50 (male:female) composition receive the highest score."}],[{"start":183.32,"text":"International diversity is based on the overall percentage of students and faculty from abroad and the spread of these individuals by citizenship based on the Herfindahl index, a measure of concentration."}],[{"start":194.04,"text":"The final criterion, FT research rank, accounts for 10 per cent of the ranking. It is calculated according to the number of articles published by schools’ full-time faculty in 50 internationally recognised academic and practitioner journals (the FT50). The rank combines the absolute number of publications from January 2024 to May 2026 with the number of publications, weighted relative to the faculty’s size."}],[{"start":218.4,"text":"The FT rankings are relative. Schools are ranked against each other rather than against set standards. The FT calculates the Z-scores for each criterion. Z-scores show how far a school’s data is from the mean. These scores are then weighted as outlined in the ranking key and added together for a final score."}],[{"start":236.92,"text":"After removing the schools that do not meet the minimum alumni response rate, a first version is calculated using all remaining schools. The school at the bottom is removed and a second version is calculated. This action is repeated until only the top 100 programmes remain."}],[{"start":252.08,"text":"Judith Pizer, of Pizer-MacMillan, and Avner Cohen, of AC Data Science, acted as the FT’s database consultants."}],[{"start":258.76,"text":"The FT research rank was calculated using Clarivate data covering 50 journals selected by the FT (the FT50) from the Web of Science, an abstract and citation database of research literature."}],[{"start":270.8,"text":"Key (ranking criteria weights in brackets as a percentage)"}],[{"start":277.12,"text":"Salary today US$ (15): average alumni salary three years after course completion, US$ international purchasing power parity equivalent. †#"}],[{"start":287.24,"text":"Salary increase (16): average difference in alumni salaries from before EMBA to now. Half the measure is calculated according to the absolute increase and half according to the percentage increase relative to pre-EMBA salary. †#"}],[{"start":301.72,"text":"Career progress (6): calculated according to changes in the level of seniority and the size of the company or organisation alumni work at now versus before their EMBA. †#"}],[{"start":311.68,"text":"Work experience (5): a measure of the pre-EMBA experience of alumni by seniority of positions, number of years in each position, organisation size and overseas work experience. †#"}],[{"start":322.72,"text":"Aims achieved (6): the extent to which alumni’s main EMBA study goals were fulfilled. †#"}],[{"start":327,"text":"Alumni network rank (4): effectiveness of the alumni network for career opportunities, launching start-ups, recruiting staff and providing event information (such as career-related talks), as rated by alumni."}],[{"start":339.72,"text":"Female faculty (5): percentage of full-time female faculty. ‡"}],[{"start":344.04,"text":"Female students (5): percentage of female students on the programme. ‡"}],[{"start":350.32,"text":"Women on board (1): percentage of female members on the advisory board. ‡"}],[{"start":355.32,"text":"International faculty (5): calculated according to the diversity of faculty by citizenship and the percentage whose citizenship differs from their location of employment — the published figure."}],[{"start":364.96,"text":"International students (5): the percentage of current EMBA students whose citizenship differs from the location in which they study, or where the school’s main campus is located, as well as their diversity by citizenship."}],[{"start":368.16,"text":"International board (1): percentage of the board whose citizenship differs from the location in which the business school is situated."}],[{"start":382.36,"text":"International course experience rank (4): based on the percentage of classroom teaching hours conducted outside the location of the business school for the recent completing class of EMBAs that require overseas study. In-person, virtual and hybrid experiences are included."}],[{"start":397.28,"text":"Faculty with doctorates (5): percentage of full-time faculty with a doctoral degree."}],[{"start":401.72,"text":"FT research rank (10): calculated according to the number of articles published by a school’s current full-time faculty members in 50 academic and practitioner journals (the FT50) from January 2024 to May 2026. The rank combines the absolute number of publications with the number weighted relative to the faculty’s size."}],[{"start":422.04,"text":"ESG and net zero teaching rank (3): proportion of teaching hours from core courses (not electives) dedicated to environmental, social and governance issues, plus climate solutions that enable organisations to reach zero emissions. Alumni evaluation of school’s ESG teaching (both core courses and electives) is also included."}],[{"start":442.44,"text":"Carbon footprint rank (4): calculated using the net zero target year for carbon emissions set by the university and/or school, and the existence of a publicly available carbon emissions audit report since 2023. Extra credit is given to schools with an audit report that includes Scope 3 emissions (those not controlled directly by the school but which occur externally in its value chain as a result of its activities)."}],[{"start":465.72,"text":"Overall satisfaction: average course evaluation by EMBA alumni, scored out of 10.*"}],[{"start":471.44,"text":"FT ranking tier: schools are divided into four groups. Schools at the top are in tier l and those at the bottom are in tier lV."}],[{"start":479.4,"text":"† Includes data for the current year and the one or two preceding years where available."}],[{"start":483.34,"text":"‡ For the three gender-related criteria, schools that have 50:50 (male:female) composition receive the highest possible score."}],[{"start":491.08,"text":"# Data from alumni who completed their programmes in 2023 included."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":500.25,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1791800994_8226.mp3"}