Later this month, QS will launch a brand-new university ranking. What, another one? Yes, another one. With more and more students choosing to stay in university and complete a postgraduate degree, we spotted a niche not covered by our existing World University Rankings or World University Rankings by Subject.
The QS World University Rankings: Business Master’s Rankings 2018 will identify the best business schools and universities for studying a master’s degree in management, finance or business analytics. Why these subjects? Because demand for each of these business master’s degrees is growing rapidly, particularly among business-minded students with an entrepreneurial eye.
These rankings will be compiled using five different metrics: employability, entrepreneurship and alumni success, return on investment, thought leadership and class & faculty diversity.
To get more information on the work that went into these rankings, and how students should aim to use them, we spoke to QS CEO Nunzio Quacquarelli (as seen in the video above) and Ben Sowter, Head of QS’s Intelligence Unit.
This is the first time QS have produced a ranking on Masters in Management, Masters in Finance and Masters in Business Analytics. Why now?
Nunzio: QS has been connecting applicants with business schools for over 20 years. Although the Full-Time MBA remains the flagship program for many schools, business masters programs are now equally popular, and in some countries more popular than the Full-Time MBA. So, it makes sense for Qs to provide these rankings side by side and allow candidates to compare.
Ben: QS resists the temptation to produce rankings that just add to the noise or slice and dice existing data in a different way. We seek a distinctive and meaningful angle before coming out of the gate. Our employer survey has been and remains one such angle, but here a vast project examining the education history of business leaders and key influencers has also come to bear, enabling us to produce a new lens on business education.
What sets these rankings apart from others available?
Ben: Alumni success is one of the measured indicators and that’s the stand-out factor for me. Over 49,000 education experiences of key business leaders and influencers have been gathered in a massive, brute force data collection effort, so we can see the schools and programs that have a proven track record of unleashing potential. This cuts right to the heart of the QS mission.
How was the methodology devised for the rankings?
Ben: As with all our rankings, a lot of hypothesis testing goes on and every outcome, expected or unexpected, has been tested for validity. The first edition of any ranking is fascinating and absorbing but, inevitably, has room to further learn and evolve. Devising and honing this methodology has only just begun and we can't wait to start gathering and processing feedback on this first edition to pave the way for the next.
What are the advantages of using multiple indicators to rank universities? How should prospective students best use these rankings in their decision-making process?
Nunzio: The indicators are selected because each provides a useful perspective. It is perhaps more important to look at these individual indicators, than the overall results. That is why we produce the QS Rankings app on iPhone and Android which allows candidates to create a personalized ranking by changing the weightings of the indicators and narrowing their countries of interest.
Ben: No student should place their whole faith in any ranking. Personally, I'd recommend they download our app, tweak our weights to their own design, filter the results to their own requirements and then shortlist three-eight programs to research further. Read their course profiles, explore their performance in other rankings and, crucially, seek an opportunity to meet or interact online with a real human representative of those programs or schools.
For more information about these rankings, keep an eye on TopUniversities.com and our sister site TopMBA.com over the coming weeks.
