HKUST joins six other business schools to shun ranking after doubts over 'methods and transparency'
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has joined six other regional business schools to boycott the annual MBA programme survey by Asia-Inc magazine, questioning its methods and transparency.
Signatories to a joint statement include the Singapore branch of INSEAD, the Guanghua School of Management in Beijing, Korea's KAIST Graduate School of Management, and business schools from the University of Auckland, Melbourne University and the University of Queensland.
Asia-Inc's survey last year triggered protest from HKUST and the Melbourne Business School, which wrote letters of complaint. HKUST claimed the survey had misused its data. Chinese University's programme was ranked top in East Asia in last year's poll, while HKU came second, followed by HKUST. But the same HKUST programme was given the top average ranking in the region by the Financial Times for 2001 to last year.
The Asia-Inc rankings were based on peer evaluation and student and faculty quality. But INSEAD's director of communications Nick Barniville said it failed to evaluate the crucial areas of alumni's return-on-investment and career progression. He also challenged the criterion on students' years of experience.
'It is not the case that programmes whose participants have an average of 15 years of experience are made better by this fact,' he said. 'MBA participants at INSEAD, Harvard or Stanford have typically four to six years' experience, because these schools choose to admit candidates with this level of exposure - with enough professional experience to contribute in the classroom, the understanding of how an MBA can benefit their future career, and the courage to take risk to attain their goals.'
The boycott business schools value MBA surveys, however. Properly managed rankings provided useful market information, said dean of HKUST Business School Chan Ka-keung.
