Strong performances by two of Hong Kong's universities in the latest executive MBA (EMBA) global rankings has shown that the city is offering some of the world's most respected courses, according to programme providers. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), which led Asia in the latest global EMBA surveys, welcomed the rankings, saying that such international recognition would help develop its relatively young programme. CUHK's EMBA programme director Mun Kin-chok said he was delighted the university had joined the world's best with a ranking of 18 globally in the UK-based Financial Times (FT) survey and 33 in the US Business Week. 'Look at some of the prestigious business schools in the US and UK, they are behind us. It is very encouraging,' said Professor Mun. 'We already had a good image in the community and now they have given us such a ranking, we are happy about that.' Northwestern (Kellogg) University of the US, which topped the Business Week survey earlier this month and was ranked sixth by the FT, runs its EMBA in Hong Kong in conjunction with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) School of Business and Management. HKUST's acting dean, Chan Ka-keung, said the FT survey also revealed that the institution was attracting participants who were among the world's highest paid. Participants in the EMBA programme this year earned an average annual salary of US$205,000 (HK$1.6 million) compared with highest ranking US establishment - the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton - whose students earned US$203,000, he said. Each EMBA survey employed differing criteria with differing results and with a smaller number of participants than those for an MBA survey, said HKUST's Professor Chan. The criteria for Business Week's survey ranged from graduates' salaries to how others viewed the schools. 'This kind of ranking is important for the market because students pay a lot of attention to it and the corporations who sponsor them also pay attention,' he said. HKUST Business School established in 1991, was also recently ranked number one MBA school in Asia and Australia by Asia-Inc magazine. Seventy-two international business schools took part in the Financial Times survey which only published the names of the top 50 selected. Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania was named the best with the Business School of Columbia University, New York, following in the Financial Times survey this month. China Europe International Business School, in Shanghai, was ranked 29 by the FT. This was the first time these publications had conducted a global survey of EMBAs.
