2 European Institutions Join List of Best MBA Programs; Harvard Is No. 1

London

For the first time, two European universities placed in the top 10 of full-time programs in master’s in business administration, according to annual rankings published Monday by the British newspaper the Financial Times.

The list shows that Europe’s leading business schools are catching up with their U.S. counterparts, the Financial Times reported. The M.B.A. was introduced into Europe only about 40 years ago, some 60 years after the first such degree was established at Dartmouth College.

The University of London’s London Business School and INSEAD, an independent institute in Fontainebleau, near Paris, made it into the top 10 in the M.B.A. 2000 list. Only the London Business School had a high enough ranking to reach the top-10 list in 1999.

The top 10, in order: Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, London Business School, INSEAD in France, and Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

A total of 106 schools around the world were invited to participate in the survey. Eighty-five met the criteria for inclusion: a full-time master’s program in business administration that has been running for at least three years, and a return rate of at least 20 percent on the alumni questionnaire. The ranking is compiled from two questionnaires: One is from the business school, and one from the alumni class of 1996. An independent assessment of the school’s research also is conducted.

The position of a school in the table is determined by its performance in categories covering three broad areas: value and quality of the M.B.A., and, in particular, how high a graduate’s salary is right out of college; diversity; and research. The specific categories include criteria like international mobility, career progress, number of female students, international faculty members, and European and North American salaries earned by graduates.