European business school tops FT’s main ranking for 2023 Open Enrollment Ranking and custom Executive Education Programs – with some notable exceptions.
The Europe-based business school offers 11 of 12 top-ranked open courses (led by Iese in Barcelona), and 9 of 12 leading bespoke courses, individually designed for client organisations. U.S.-based Duke Corporate Education, however, has bucked the trend and firmly topped the custom leaderboard.
Duke CE Followed by Custom Watches in France INSEAD, HEC Paris, go out and Express delivery in Germany.University of Michigan: Ross ranks sixth in the nation, while Cabra Foundation Brazil ranks 11th.
Among the top 12 schools for open enrollment, Cabra Foundation is the only non-European provider, joint seventh, while other top-ranking institutions include Oxford: explain, London Business School and IMD at Switzerland.
FT Executive Education Rankings 2023
Iese and Duke CE
Check Double main ranking of custom and open enrollment Executive education programs, plus top 50 comprehensive table.
European providers, led by HEC Paris, France, Iese and Insead, also top the combined table thanks to strong performances in the main twin rankings for courses open to all and bespoke programmes. Duke CE does not offer open enrollment courses, so they are not covered here.
Executive education often includes shorter non-degree courses. The FT’s rankings of open enrollment and bespoke courses are not comprehensive: each rank lists the top 75 of the 105 schools that took part in the process. Some schools did not receive adequate evaluation from participants and clients, while others, including some in the US, refused to participate.
Despite pressure on training and development budgets from employers and competition from alternative providers such as edtech companies, consultants and coaches, the data reveal the continued diversity and strength of business school executive education providers.
“There is growing interest in exec ed from schools, which often have strong regional links with businesses,” said Andrew Crisp, co-founder of education consultancy CarringtonCrisp. “In the wider market, economic Uncertainty is a factor, along with layoffs in the tech sector, training is often an early casualty of corporate spending tightening.”
Courses are often taught across multiple campuses, exposing students to different cultures and reflecting their geographic distribution. For example, the Spanish school Iese has courses taught in the US, Germany and Brazil, HEC in Qatar and INSEAD in Singapore and the UAE, as well as their French-language operations.
Adviser Andrew Crisp says recession has squeezed some training budgets
Geopolitical tensions between China and Russia have limited some international projects.However, Xiang Bing, the president of Beijing, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, who said domestic demand remains strong, is also developing courses focused on “unicorn” companies in Singapore, South Korea, Dubai, Japan, Italy and the United States. “The key driver is our globalization,” he said.
Many executive education programs have been hit hard during the pandemic as employers focus on maintaining their businesses, but are gaining momentum as companies offer training to retain and motivate senior employees, explore new strategies, build teams and upskill Digital transformation has been partially resumed. Leadership, along with topics such as artificial intelligence, managing remote workers, sustainability and diversity, are frequently sought-after by executives.
However, business schools are being impacted by the expansion of alternative forms of delivery online in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of new technologies including regenerative AI.
Corporate learning consultant Josh Bersin said some business school executive courses thought to offer “off-the-shelf” training were “losing their luster”, but corporate clients were “willing to spend a lot of money for specialized, bespoke leadership courses”.
While reducing the scope of face-to-face contact, online and hybrid courses also reduce training costs and travel barriers for participants and speakers from around the world.
A string of business schools, some of which do not participate in the FT rankings, are continuing to expand and restructure, including Chicago Booth, which is moving its Asian backbone back to Hong Kong after briefly shifting to Singapore during the pandemic.
Top-ranked schools must be approved by the US-based accreditation body AACSB or its European counterpart EFMD, and have reported revenue of at least $1 million in 2022 within the scope of a custom or open executive education program, depending on in ranking. They were rated on a range of criteria, including participants’ assessments of a range of factors, including course design, follow-up and school survey data on teacher and student diversity.
Among the public courses, Iese, which ranks first, ranks first in overall satisfaction; HEC Paris ranks second, ranking among the best in terms of course design, teaching methods, teaching staff and follow-up. Five schools, including Iese, reported a 50:50 gender balance. Kozminski University Poland has the highest proportion of female students at 67 per cent; this Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad The lowest, is 20%.
In custom courses, clients first judge Duke CE’s program design and teaching methods and materials, Michigan: Ross’s faculty quality. Insead leads the way for new skills and learning, and Berlin-based ESMT scores highest for goals achieved and value for money.
For open courses, schools submit one or two general management courses of at least three days, and one or two advanced management courses of at least five days. For custom courses, each school must have a minimum of 15 clients, of which at least 5 must complete an assessment.