'Student diversity is a feature of our programme. We will continue to improve these features to support Hong Kong as an education hub.'

Steven DeKrey, director of the school's MBA programmes, was equally enthusiastic.

'We have been implementing a number of initiatives in our programme to enrich the students' learning experience,' he said.

'In addition to our well-established international exchange programme, we have in recent years added a professional team to look after the students' personal and career development. Our objectives are to assist our students to renew, improve and develop themselves with their MBA experience. I am glad these results are consistent with our priorities.'

HKU's full-time MBA programme was launched five years ago. It came in 79th the following year, jumping to 39th in this year's ranking.

'We are the only MBA programme in Asia ranked in the top 50 two years in a row,' said Chris Chan, MBA director, HKU.

'Our MBA full-time programme is only five years old, but we have been the most consistent and rapidly rising programme in Asia and Australasia.'

HKUST's Executive MBA (EMBA) programme, which is taught in conjunction with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the United States, did even better, coming in third in a global survey of EMBA programmes conducted by the Financial Times.

In addition to a strong overall showing, the programme performed well in several specific categories, coming in first for student diversity, second for the international makeup of its faculty, second for most experienced intake, and fourth for 'aims achieved' - all indicating the extent to which alumni have met their goals.

'Our lofty rankings are an external confirmation of our internal excellence in mentoring top-quality students who come to study at HKUST from local, mainland or worldwide sources,' said HKUST president Paul Chu Ching-wu.

'It is gratifying to know that our efforts in training them as future leaders have received repeated worldwide recognition.'

The decision to take part in MBA ranking exercises is not taken lightly. The Richard Ivey School of Business, which has campuses in Canada and Hong Kong, regards rankings as one of many ways to achieve continuous improvement.

'They are most effective when combined with the Ivey's own measurement tools, such as student surveys, course and faculty evaluations and recruiter and alumni feedback,' said Kathleen Slaughter, associate dean for Asia, Richard Ivey School of Business.

'At the same time, we know that prospective students use the rankings in their selection process, so rankings cannot be ignored. Ivey's primary focus, however, is on achieving our goals through the implementation of cross-enterprise leadership, as well as ensuring that all of our students have a world-class learning experience that sets them on the road to success.'

The Wall Street Journal's ranking this year of MBA programmes, based on the perceptions of corporate recruiters around the world, put Ivey among the top 10 international schools and the best in Canada for the second consecutive year.

In BusinessWeek's biannual ranking of MBA programmes in the United States, Canada and Europe, Ivey was ranked second in the international category. 'This ranking is based on survey responses from both current students and recruiters [a 45 per cent weighting each] as well as the intellectual capital produced by the business schools [10 per cent weighting],' Professor Slaughter said.

'Ivey was designated first place in the poll of corporate recruiters, who praised Ivey grads for their ability to 'quickly adapt to the workplace with little additional training'.'

The Financial Times puts a high premium on salary, which tends to put schools in countries with low pay scales at a disadvantage.

'While Ivey graduates continue to earn the highest salaries in Canada, these same top Canadian salaries are not among the highest on an international scale,' Professor Slaughter said.

'We will always pursue excellence and seek ways to provide greater value to all of Ivey's stakeholders. Rankings are one data point in this pursuit of excellence.'

Lene Jensen, associate director of the MBA programme at Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) Hong Kong, said salary prospects played a key role in how a business school performed in many media ranking exercises.

'The pace and extent of the financial rewards that flow from acquiring an MBA are influenced by factors such as whether graduates already have established careers, the sectors in which graduates work, and whether graduates are seeking a career change, in which case it may take longer to reap financial payoffs,' she said.

'The Forbes MBA ranking, which measures the financial return on investment gained by completing an MBA, ranks

AGSM as the fifth best non-US business school for financial payoff. The career and salary progression of AGSM graduates allows them to recoup the costs of undertaking their MBA in an average of just under three years, a return on investment of 30 per cent.'

But salary is not the only consideration.

'I think a reliable measure of what an MBA is really worth comes down to alumni satisfaction,' Ms Jensen said.

'The Financial Times MBA survey also reports a very high level of alumni satisfaction with career advancement and salary among our graduates.

The Association of MBAs' 2006 career survey suggested that MBA graduates with established careers achieved higher variable earnings through performance-related bonuses and share options.

'The traditional sectors for higher earnings continue to be consulting and financial services,' the survey noted.

At the end of the day, a business school's reputation does count for something, and how it does in media rankings can play a key role in its reputation.

Economist Intelligence Unit 2006 Top 100 Full-Time MBA Programmes

(Positions of Asian and Australasian schools)

37 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

39 The University of Hong Kong

49 Monash University, Australia

77 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

81 Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia

84 The University of Melbourne, Australia

85 International University of Japan

91 Curtin University of Technology, Australia

97 The University of Otago, New Zealand

98 Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India

99 National University of Singapore

Financial Times

EMBA 2006 Top 10

1 Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, US

2 Columbia, US/London Business School, Britain

3 Kellogg/HKUST

4 Trium: HEC Paris, France/London School of Economics, Britain/New York University, Stern, US

5 Instituto de Empresa, Spain

6 University of Chicago, US

7 London Business School, Britain

8 Washington University: Olin (Washington-Fudan EMBA), China

9 Duke University: Fuqua, US

10 Northwestern University: Kellogg, US