The QS Global Recruiters’ Top100 Business Schools ranks business schools according to the opinions of almost500 international MBA recruiters including Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America. In2007, though the number of European schools is down to32 from the top100 due to an increased presence of Asian business schools amongst recruiter choices, Europe’s schools still show strongly. This is also in the face of the pressures of a weakening dollar, making the US seem a more cost-effective option for international students than it was a few years ago.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of education and careers experts QS and author of the report says: “The make-up of the recruiters’ top100 business schools will vary annually with changes in employer demand profiles. In2003, only30 US business schools made the cut as more European schools entered the fray. Now the strengthening Asian entries are having a similar effect.”
INSEAD, London Business School and IE Business School remain the most popular with recruiters, benefiting from the enduring recovery in consulting and banking. INSEAD tops the tables internationally for the International Management specialization, ahead of both Harvard and Wharton. In terms of Entrepreneurship, IE is the recruiters’ most preferred school while London Business School shows strongly across the board in all ten specializations that the report ranked.
A number of newcomers - ESCP-EAP, Ashridge, EM Lyon, Lancaster, Mannheim and Warsaw University of Technology - to the top30 in Europe in2007 show that other European players have caught the eye of international recruiters. These schools are gradually pressuring the established hierarchy in the next tier of European business schools.
It is several years since renowned universities such as Oxford and Cambridge developed MBA programs and this trend was followed across Europe. These schools moved up the recruiter preference tables quite rapidly in recent years, doubtless profiting from the already existing name awareness of their universities with recruiters. With the exception of Copenhagen Business School, all have continued to perform well in2007.
The United Kingdom is always well represented amongst recruiter’s choices and2007 is no exception. Seven UK schools feature within the top20 European schools: Cambridge, CASS, Cranfield, London Business School, Manchester, Oxford and Warwick. Ashridge, Imperial and Lancaster also appear within the top30.
ESADE, IESE and IE are three Spanish schools showing a strong increase in performance in the last few years, and in2007 again feature among the top ten European schools. Italian schools have also continued to perform well, MIP - Politecnico di Milano is up two places to17th, and SDA Bocconi stable at8th.
French schools in the top30 are represented by HEC Paris, ESCP-EAP, ESSEC, and EM Lyon. Of these, ESCP-EAP has shown the largest position improvement this year, up from39th in Europe last year to14th this year.
In Switzerland, IMD which always features in the top five European schools has improved to3rd, while University of St Gallen has risen from22nd to18th, joined by HEC Lausanne in the top30.
German business schools have fallen out of favour with recruiters in2007. Although Mannheim has entered the top30, and WHU-Otto Beisheim features32nd in Europe and makes the top100 globally, several German schools have dropped out – noticeably HHL Leipzig, Gisma and SIMT.
The Central European University Business School (CEU) in Hungary and Warsaw University of Technology sustain the recent presence of Central/Eastern European institutions featuring in the top European top30. However, IBS Moscow dropped out of the list this year having just made the cut in2006.
