Warwick Business School’s online MBA as well as the Spanish programme from IE Business School have traditionally been at the forefront of online MBA education. They both took out the top spots in the recent QS Distance Online MBA Rankings. Alliance Manchester Business School, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, the Oxford Brookes University Business, the Open University Business School, the Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, the Graduate School of Business, Durham University Business School and the Robert Gordon University took out the remaining spots in the top ten.
Amongst these top ten were mainly UK and US offers, IE was the online university in a non-English speaking country that placed at the top. But the recent Online MBA Ranking did not only show an Anglo-American dominance in the field, it also shone the spotlight on the different quality of education that an online degree provides.
The rankings, which were conducted by QS, the organiser of some of the largest business education events in the world like the QS World MBA Tour, took several aspects of a good and well-rounded education into account. These are also valuable markers for students looking for the right programme for themselves:
Amongst these aspects were employability, so how easily graduates find a job after graduation, as well as student quality (the average years of work experience across the class, the number of applicants per place, the average GMAT score of admitted students, and the percentage of those with first degrees). QS also looked at how established the offer in the online MBA marketplace is.
”Already, we have seen online MBA programmes come and go. (…) It is a big commitment for a school to offer an online MBA programme. We therefore award 15 per cent of the total score for schools that have proved they have staying power in this market, and can continue to attract students.” QS also commented on awarding scores for schools who have experience in delivering courses long distance like Warwick Business School and the Open University.
Other aspects were accreditation from AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS and/or EPAS. Nine ranked schools boasted the ‘triple crown’ of accreditation from AACSM, AMBA and EQUIS. And finally the number of students enrolled also contributed to the outcome of the ranking.
Faculty and teaching, class experience and diversity (percentage of women enrolled and the number of nationalities) were the final aspects taken into consideration for the ranking. In terms of the latter, no one could beat the Alliance Manchester Business School’s 100+ nationalities which have helped catapult the school on third position in the rankings.
QS Distance Online MBA Rankings 2016
1 Warwick Business School, UK
2 IE Business School, Spain
3 Alliance Manchester Business School, UK
4 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, USA
5 Oxford Brookes University Business, UK
6 The Open University Business School, The Open University, UK
7 The University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, USA
8 Graduate School of Business, University of Strathclyde, UK
9 Durham University Business School, UK
10 The Robert Gordon University, UK
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QS Distance Online MBA Rankings 2016
What Makes a Good Online MBA Program?