FT Global MBA Ranking 2025: methodology and key

The Financial Times Global MBA Ranking features 100 of the world’s top full-time MBA programmes. A total of 125 schools took part in the ranking process for the 2025 edition. All participating schools meet the FT’s entry criteria and are accredited by Equis or the AACSB.

The FT surveys alumni three years after completing their MBA. For schools to enter the ranking calculation process, the FT requires that a minimum of 20 per cent of alumni reply to the survey, with at least 20 completed surveys.

We surveyed MBA alumni who completed their degree in 2021. Due to the disruption from Covid in that year, the FT considered schools with a lower response rate. A total of 6,299 alumni from the class of 2021 completed our survey — an overall response rate of 36 per cent.

The MBA ranking is derived from 21 criteria. Alumni responses inform eight criteria that together contribute 56 per cent of its weight. A further 12 criteria are calculated from school data, accounting for 34 per cent of the ranking (KPMG also audits several schools every year). The remaining criterion, the research rank, counts for 10 per cent.

Alumni-informed criteria are based on the data collected over three years. Responses from the 2025 ranking survey carry 50 per cent of the total weight and those from 2024 and 2023 25 per cent each. If only two years of data is available, the weighting is split 60:40 if data is from 2025 and 2024, or 70:30 if it is from 2025 and 2023. For salary figures, the weighting is 50:50 for any two years’ data.

The first two alumni criteria are average income three years after completion of the programme and salary increase from before the MBA to now, each weighted at 16 per cent. For the latter, half of the weight applies to the absolute increase and half to the percentage rise (the published figure). 

Current salaries are converted to US dollars using IMF international purchasing power parity rates.

The highest and lowest salaries are removed from each school, to calculate a normalised average. Finally, salaries are weighted to reflect differences between different sectors.

“Value for money” for each school is calculated by dividing its average alumni salary three years after completion by the MBA’s total cost, including tuition, lost salary, opportunity cost and other expenses. Any scholarship assistance given to alumni is subtracted from the total.

The FT also collects information from schools on their current faculty, newly enrolled students and the latest completing class. School criteria include the diversity of staff, board members and students by gender and citizenship. For gender criteria, schools with a 50:50 composition score highest.

Another diversity measure is the student sector category, which looks at the range of industries in which candidates have worked before starting their MBA.

We also measure the effectiveness of alumni networks based on ratings given by graduates for helping with various tasks such as finding careers advice, internships, job opportunities and recruiting staff.

The research rank is based on the number of articles by full-time faculty in 50 internationally recognised academic and practitioner journals. The rank combines the number of publications from January 2022 to May 2024, weighted relative to the size of the faculty at the business school.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) rank is based on the proportion of teaching hours from core courses that are dedicated to ESG topics, and time spent on instructing how organisations can reach net zero. It also includes the alumni evaluation of their school’s ESG teaching.

Finally, the school’s carbon footprint rank awards credit to schools with a carbon emissions audit report that includes Scope 3 emissions — those not controlled by the school but which occur externally in its value chain as a result of its activities.

The MBA ranking is a relative listing. Schools are ranked against each other by calculating a Z-score for each criterion. The Z-score is a statistic that shows where a score lies in relation to the mean. These scores are then weighted as outlined in the ranking key and added together for a final score.

After removing schools that did not meet the response rate threshold from the alumni survey, a first version is calculated. The school at the bottom is removed and a second version is calculated, and so on, until we reach the top 100. The top 100 schools are ranked accordingly to produce the final list.

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Key (weights for ranking criteria are shown in brackets as a percentage)

Salary today**: average alumni salary three years after completion, US$ PPP equivalent (international purchasing power parity, see methodology, p23). This figure is not used in the ranking. #

Weighted salary (16): average alumni salary three years after completion, US$ PPP equivalent, with adjustment for variations between sectors. #

Salary increase (16): average difference in alumni salary from before the MBA to now. Half of this figure is calculated according to the absolute salary increase and half according to the percentage increase relative to pre-MBA salary. #

Value for money rank (5): calculated using salary today, course length, tuition and other costs, including income forgone during the MBA. #

Career progress rank (3): calculated according to changes in the level of seniority and the size of the organisation alumni work in now, compared with before their MBA. #

Aims achieved (4): extent to which alumni fulfilled their stated goals or reasons for studying for an MBA. #

Alumni network rank (4): effectiveness of the alumni network for career opportunities, starting companies, gaining new ideas, recruiting staff and providing event information (eg career-related talks), as rated by alumni. #

Careers service rank (3): effectiveness of the school careers service for career counselling, personal development, networking events, internship search and recruitment, as rated by alumni. #

Employed at three months (2): percentage of the most recent completing class that found employment or accepted a job offer within three months of finishing their studies. The figure in brackets is the percentage of the class for which the business school was able to provide employment data and is used to calculate its final score. §

Sector diversity rank (3): calculated according to the diversity of sectors in which the students worked at the time of admission, before the MBA. 

Female faculty (3): percentage of female faculty. ||

Female students (3): percentage of female students.

Women on board (1): percentage of female members on the school’s advisory board.

International faculty (3): calculated according to the diversity of faculty by citizenship and the percentage whose citizenship differs from their location of employment — the figure published in the table. ||

International students (3): calculated according to the diversity of current MBA students by citizenship and the percentage whose citizenship differs from the location in which they study — the figure in the table.

International board (1): percentage of the board whose citizenship differs from the location in which the school is based.

International mobility rank (5): based on alumni citizenship and the locations where they worked before their MBA, on completion and three years after. #

International course experience rank (3): calculated according to whether the most recent completing class took part in exchanges and internships, lasting at least a month, in countries other than where the school is based. In-person, virtual and hybrid experiences are included. §

Faculty with doctorates (5): percentage of full-time faculty with a doctoral degree. ||

FT research rank (10): calculated according to the number of articles published by full-time faculty members in 50 selected academic and practitioner journals from January 2022 to May 2024. The rank combines the absolute number of publications with the number weighted relative to the faculty’s size. ||

Carbon footprint rank (4): calculated using the net zero target year for carbon emissions set by the university and/or school, and the existence of a publicly available carbon emissions audit report since 2019. Extra credit is given to schools with an audit report that includes Scope 3 emissions (those not controlled directly by the school but which occur externally in its value chain as a result of its activities).

ESG and net zero teaching rank (3): proportion of teaching hours from core courses dedicated to environmental, social and governance issues and climate solutions addressing how organisations can reach net zero. Alumni evaluation of the school’s ESG teaching is also included.

Overall satisfaction**: average evaluation by alumni of the course, scored out of 10. After alumni answered various questions about their MBA experience, they were asked to rate their overall satisfaction, on a 10-point scale. This figure is not used in the ranking.

Footnotes

Schools with a 50:50 (male/female) composition receive the highest score in the three gender-related criteria.

** Category not used in the ranking.

§ Alumni who completed their MBA from July 2023 to June 2024.

|| Faculty data is based on full-time staff at the business school, as of May 31 2024. Visiting and temporary faculty are excluded.

# Includes data for the class of 2021 and one or two preceding classes, where available.

Judith Pizer of Pizer-MacMillan and Avner Cohen of AC Data Science acted as the FT’s database consultants. The FT research rank was calculated using Clarivate data covering 50 journals selected by the FT from the Web of Science, an abstract and citation database of research literature.