The Economist has been publishing their MBA rankings for the past 9 years. Often schools adjust a few places within the rankings throughout the years however 2010’s rankings have been less predictable. This is largely to do with schools finding it more difficult to open career opportunities and meet graduate salary expectations due to the struggling job market.
The Economist aims to rank MBA programmes on things that the students themselves see as important such as career opportunities, salary levels, personal development and the whole experience, potential to network and more.
Please see below a list of the top 10 global MBA programmes for 2010 as ranked by the Economist.
The Economist Top 10 Global MBA Programmes 2010
| Rank (2009 in brackets) | School | Country |
| 1 (4) | University of Chicago-Booth School of Business | America |
| 2 (6) | Dartmouth College-Tuck School of Business | America |
| 3 (3) | University of California at Berkeley-Haas School of Business | America |
| 4 (5) | Harvard Business School | America |
| 5 (1) | IESE Business School - Univeristy of Navarra | America |
| 6 (2) | IMD - International Institute for Management Developement | Switzerland |
| 7 (7) | Stanford Graduate School of Business | America |
| 8 (9) | University of Pennsylvania-Wharton School | America |
| 9 (14) | HEC School of Management, Paris | France |
| 10 (12) | York University-Schulich School of Business | Canada |
Chicago’s Booth School was ranked number 1 mainly because their careers service was ranked the best of any school. Graduates of the school were placed into all 11 different industry sectors, where as many other schools were unable to meet this.
European MBAs are still likely to out-earn the rest of the world however this gap has narrowed and many European schools have seen a drop in graduate salaries. London Business School and IMD in Switzerland are among the schools that have seen a drop in graduate’s salaries. American schools have also seen a drop however not as bad as other schools across the world.
Schools across the world have also struggled to maintain the quality of the student body. Although many proffesionals have used the recession as a time to begin an MBA programme, some students have begun to doubt whether the tuition fees is worth the sometimes uncertain returns. The Economist uses average GMAT scores to measure student’s intellectual competency. Many American schools remained the same or increased on previous years, where as a few European schools have seen a decline on student’s average score.
Top 10 Schools listed by categories used by the Economist
| Open new career opportunities | Personal development and educational experience | Increase salary | Potential to network |
| Chicago (Booth) | Hong Kong UST | HEC Paris | Thunderbird |
| Southern California (Marshall) | INSEAD | IESE | Henley |
| Indian Institute (Ahmadabad) | Mannheim | Manchester | Cambridge (Judge) |
| Dartmouth (Tuck) | York (Schulich) | Bath | Southern California (Marshall) |
| California at Berkeley (Hass) | Bath | Audencia | California at Berkeley (Hass) |
| ESADE | Cambridge (Judge) | Ashbridge | EGADE |
| Virginia (Darden) | Dartmouth (Tuck) | Mannheim | HEC Paris |
| Columbia | Monash | Monaco | Notre Dame (Mendoza) |
| Harvard | MIT (Sloan) | Henley | Stanford |
| IMD | Henley | IMD | Harvard |
To read more about the 2010 Economist Rankings and to view their rankings please visit theirwebsite.