The 10 Best EMBA Programs In The World

US programs dominate in the new Global EMBA rankings from QS, while three UK schools make it into the top 10

If you’re looking for a high-quality Executive MBA, you should be concentrating on schools in the US and UK—or so say QS in the data for their EMBA rankings, released today.

QS’s Global EMBA rankings for 2018 show that EMBA excellence is focused mainly in English-speaking countries, with the US and UK making a strong showing across the board—particularly in the top 10.

The Executive MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School comes out on top overall, with world-leading scores in three of the five metrics QS use to determine schools’ positions in the rankings.

These metrics mainly prioritise the career prospects that candidates are offered by the EMBA programs. A combined total of 50% of the metrics analyse careers—30% of a school’s score...

ed on the program’s reputation among employers and 20% assesses salary increases and promotions for EMBA students post-degree.

Wharton, with widespread brand recognition among employers and a dedicated Careers Coaching service on the EMBA, can certainly be seen to cater to this element of the ranking.

London Business School (LBS), the highest-ranking UK school in the list at number three, also offers personalized career coaching to its students and alumni, contributing to its high position in the ranking.

The remaining assessment categories are 'thought leadership' (a quarter of the schools’ assessment); the profile of the students enrolling in the course, in particular c-suite representation within the program (15%), and finally gender and international diversity among the students (10%).

The Executive MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management rounds out the top three by coming in at second place, and of the remaining schools in the top 10, only three are based outside of the US, and all of them are in the UK and Europe.

These are the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, which comes in eighth place, and the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, which shares the final spot in the top 10 with IESE Business School in Spain.

For those set on pursuing a program in mainland Europe, QS’s rankings attest to the quality of the EMBA program on offer at INSEAD in France, which comes in 12th in the QS EMBA ranking. Other high-quality European courses include those at HEC Paris (13th in QS’s list) and IE Business School (16^th).

As for the Asia-Pacific, similarly to the QS Global MBA rankings for this year, schools lag slightly behind the US and Europe. Asia’s highest-ranking school is Shanghai’s China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), which takes a respectable 26th position.

This contrasts with other EMBA rankings tables such as the Financial Times which includes joint-EMBA ventures featuring top Asian business schools like the University of Hong Kong and HKUST.

Also highly-ranked by the FT is the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, an EMBA awarded in partnership by New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business, London School of Economics (LSE), and HEC Paris.

See the top 10 EMBA programs as ranked by QS for yourself below: