The Financial Times placed the University of Wisconsin 27th in its ranking of Executive Masters in Business Administration programs worldwide. This was an improvement from last year’s ranking of 33.
Among the American institutions included in the Financial Times’ annual list of the 75 best programs in executive studies, UW ranked 16th, and first among the U.S. schools concerning percentage of women enrolled.
Even though it is prestigious to be included among the top 30 schools in the world, UW business professor and director of the EMBA program Randall Dunham added that the rankings could be misleading as they concern schools with close rankings.
“I think the rankings are so close together with some universities,” Dunham said. “There is probably very little difference from being 16 and 17 on the list.”
Whatever the case, Dunham reiterated the quality of the poll.
“The rankings are a reasonable depiction of the general [quality] of the programs,” he said. “When you’re in the top 30 in the world, you’re in a pretty elite group.”
Although UW was in the top 35 in last year’s rankings, Dunham said the business program takes steps to advance its programs.
“I think we’ve all been doing things to improve,” he said, adding that the school has provided more support for instructors, instructors have been giving better lectures and the quality of the students in the program is excellent.
“I think one good point we have great students admitted for the program,” Dunham said.
A number of issues are considered in order for the London newspaper to grade the universities, one being the income of graduates.
“[The income issue] might hurt a little bit us because of our part of the country,” Dunham said. He added that this might be one reason UW was not ranked higher, because many students go to jobs in the Midwest area, whereas fifth ranked New York University graduate students go to the higher-income East Coast positions.
“But, the cost of living is higher there, too,” Dunham said, adding it would be near impossible for the Financial Times to consider all worldwide regional economic conditions.
The EMBA program also boasts much new course material, according to Dunham.
“60 percent of the material was published in the last two years, and a third was in the last year,” Dunham said. “[Students] know they’re getting good stuff ? it’s not the professors’ old yellow notes.”
Other highlights of UW EMBA program are trips that all students are encouraged to take to foreign parts of the world, like last year’s trip to Latin America, and this upcoming March’s trip to Brazil and Argentina. According to Dunham, students on the trip visit with local leaders to learn more about international business, and also visit with area businessmen and women to educate themselves in the industry.
The EMBA program also offers a chance to attend a Chinese Academy of Sciences conference. For this trip several, but not all, of the executive students are allowed to attend.
According to the report, Wharton, University of Chicago, Duke University, Columbia and New York University rounded up the top five EMBA programs in the world.
