QS Global 200 Business Schools Report

The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report identifies the most popular business schools in each region of the world. It aims to serve employers seeking MBAs at a regional level. It originated in the early 1990s under the partnership Quacquarelli Symonds. The TopMBA Career Guide was made in 1990, and five years later in 1995 the QS World MBA Tour was begun. In 1996 the QS TopMBA Global Recruiters Top 100 Business Schools was begun. This has since then grown and in 2010 adopted the name 'Global 200 Top Business Schools Report'. Quacquarelli Symonds also began producing the independent rankings system, QS World University Rankings, in 2004. The Business Schools Report was formed as an alternative to business school rankings. With its global outreach, QS obtains survey responses from employers from different continents and a variety of industries, allowing it to produce reports by specialisation, including Finance, Corporate Governance, Operations Management, and Strategy. At the heart of the report is the definitive list of 200 business schools currently preferred by most international employers for the purpose of hiring MBA graduates. This list is compiled from an annual survey of Human Resources (HR) managers and line managers with recruiting responsibilities at companies around the world. Each year employers recommend new schools to be added to this list, which employers around the world can then rate and comment upon.

Methodology

Index of Employer Votes

Points are assigned by a combination of what schools employers have tried to hire from, and those that they pick out of a list of 400. This lift is drafted from the most popular schools in the previous report. Employers are encouraged to suggest new schools that could be added. To ensure stability the votes from the current year are added to those of the previous year and a mean average is produced. The total votes are then indexed against the best performing business school, which is given an Index score of 100. The percentage score produced is known as the school’s Index of Employer Votes. Only employers that confirm that the company hires from more than one country are classified as international MBA employers and generate the Employer Votes in the final results.

The Rankings

The 2010 ranking consisted of 80 schools in North America, 67 schools in Europe, 36 schools in Asia-Pacific, 10 schools in Latin America and 7 schools in Africa and the Middle East. In the past decade, its outreach has grown significantly: in 1999, only 15 schools outside of North America and Europe featured in the research, compared to 53 schools this year.

The regional rankings can be seen below:

Criticism

The rankings are solely based on the opinions of the employers. Thus, a lot of trust is conferred by QS onto the respondents to their survey. A personal grudge against an employee from a particular school could result in a lower ranking for that institution. Whereas other rankings are configured on the basis of a number of factors, the reliance on this feedback makes the rankings vulnerable to outliers, which affects their reliability. However, in a world where employers require the services that the rankings provide, it makes sense for QS to trust them â€" the more truthful their responses, the more truthful the rankings are.

Competitors

(i) Bloomberg Business Week

(ii) Financial Times

Directors/Principle Staff

Nunzio Quacquarelli

Ben Sowter

Ross Geraghty

References

External links

• Quacquarelli Symonds Network
• TopMBA official website
• Quacquarelli Symonds official website