On January 29, 2007, President-Professor Zhu Xiaoming announced the MBA program at CEIBS ranked 11th on the "Top-100 Full-Time Global MBA Programs" list released by Financial Times (FT) 2007.
The top-10 business schools on the ranking were University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, London Business School, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, New York University Stern School of Business, Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business, and Yale School of Management.
On behalf of the Shanghai Municipal Government, Madame Yan Junqi, deputy mayor, congratulated the school in a letter that cited CEIBS as the pioneer in China's management education reform, providing precious experience for the development of management education. Madame Yan expressed the desire that CEIBS can move even higher from this new starting point and contribute more to China's new round of economic growth.
Compared to last year, CEIBS's ranking improved significantly on nine of the twenty criteria used by FT to determine the overall ranking. These nine factors together account for 63% of the overall weight.
In the new ranking, the six criteria where CEIBS scores best are "salary percentage increase at 3 years" (ranked 1st), "employment rate at 3 months" (ranked 2nd), "international faculty" (ranked 6th), "weighted salary at 3 years (based upon PPP by World Bank)" (ranked 7th), "international experience" (ranked 9th), and "international board" (ranked 14th).
For the first time in history, a business school from Asia-Pacific region entered the "first-tier" of FT ranking and thus kept CEIBS number one in Asia for four consecutive years.
Entering the First-tier
CEIBS made a large advance from 22nd position last year to 11th this year. This puts the school ahead of other prestigious schools with a longer history such as IMD (13th), MIT Sloan (14th), the University of Cambridge Judge (15th) and IESE Business School (16th).
According to the Financial Times, the ranked Top-100 business schools could be further grouped into four tiers. The first-tier consisting of 16 schools is headed by University of Pennsylvania Wharton, closely followed by Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School. The second-tier starts with UCLA Anderson (17th) and ends with 30th on the list. University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler (32nd) takes the lead in the "third-tier" which includes 22 schools such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Western Ontario Ivey. The remaining 47 schools after 54th on the list belong to the "fourth-tier".
Twenty criteria covering three main aspects of business school and MBA program are used to determine the FT Global MBA Program ranking: Alumni Career Progress, Program Diversity in gender and internationalization, and Research Capability.
To ensure its reliability, FT has entrusted KPMG to randomly audit ranked schools each year. In the past two years, 30 schools have been audited. In 2006, CEIBS successfully passed the check with a 100% data accuracy rate.
Internationalization Characteristics of CEIBS
Over 12 years of development, CEIBS has gradually developed its own characteristics that have now been recognized by globally renowned ranking and accreditation institutions. Its strength in MBA education is due to CEIBS's persistence in its market-oriented strategy, internationalization philosophy and high-end market focus.
Associate Dean-Professor Lydia Price, also the MBA Academic Director, commented that CEIBS always endeavors to maintain a balance between internationalization and localization of MBA education while fostering strategic thinking and a strong decision-making focus in students' mindset. The MBA program at CEIBS equips students with highly applicable business knowledge. The international exchange program and practicum opportunities at CEIBS give students a chance to broaden their experiences and apply what they have learned in the classroom. CEIBS's international experience was ranked 9th by FT.
In recent years, the international student percentage at CEIBS has continually increased. The latest data shows that about half the applicants of the recently finished 2007 first-round admission came from 15 overseas countries and areas around the world. Most of the international applicants have either obtained a degree from prestigious universities or demonstrated outstanding professional experience.
Three "Major Leaps" of CEIBS in the Ranking
Since its first entrance into the FT top-100 ranking in 2002, CEIBS MBA program has never stopped climbing. Till this year, CEIBS has been on the Top-100 list for six years and top in Asia for four consecutive years. It experienced three "major leaps" before arriving at the present accomplishment: its first appearance on Top-100 ranking in 2002, Asia's best in 2004 followed by second-tier entrance in 2005, and finally creation of "Miracle in Asia" this year. President-Professor Zhu Xiaoming remarked, "The success of CEIBS is a result of co-operation between the Chinese Government, Shanghai Municipal Government and European Commission. It is also a result of unremitting efforts by CEIBS staff and students to follow Honorary President-Liu Ji's advocated school motto: contentiousness, innovation and excellence. Equally significant, former President Li Jiahao and Zhang Guohua contributed their wisdom, energy and whole life to lay a solid foundation for the school's development."
