HKUST is top MBA school in Asia for second year
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has risen to 20th in the latest rankings of worldwide full-time master's of business administration programmes by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
HKUST topped all schools in Asia on the list of the top 100 programmes. The University of Hong Kong's programme ranked 37th worldwide, and Chinese University's came 91st.
The rankings were based on questionnaires completed by business schools and about 20,000 MBA students and graduates worldwide.
Factors included a programme's ability to open up career opportunities and further the students' careers, personal development and educational experience, increase salaries and networking potential.
HKUST's programme was also named the best in Asia in last year's survey.
The university's director of MBA programmes, Steven DeKrey, said that the improvement of its careers service helped this year's ranking. The programme ranked No3 in the personal development and educational experience category, and ranked No10 in its ability to open new career opportunities. Professor DeKrey said the university would continue to strive to make its programme market-oriented and 'more sensitive to recruiters' needs'.
Leonard Cheng Kwok-hon, HKUST's acting dean of business and management, said that with the improving quality of schools on the mainland, the school would try to maintain a strong international network and its 'uniqueness'.
He added that the number of new students could increase to 120 in the future, compared with 75 this year.
Dr DeKrey admitted the school ranked lower in its ability to increase salaries and the potential to network. He attributed it to the short history of MBA programmes in Asia.
According to university figures, in the recent batch of 56 graduates, seven had annual salaries of more than US$100,000. One of them, who secured a job at an investment bank, earns US$150,000.
HKU's Gary Biddle, who is dean of faculty of business and economics, said he was delighted with the school's ranking of 37th.
The only other school in the top 50 in the Asian region was Monash University in Australia (43rd). The China Europe International Business School in Shanghai was ranked 90th.
The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business topped the list, with Stanford Graduate School of Business second and the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Barcelona, Spain, third.
The hot list
The positions of schools in Asia and Australia on the EIU's list of the top 100 full-time MBA programmes
20 HKUST (Hong Kong)
37 University of HK (Hong Kong)
43 Monash University (Australia)
72 Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
77 International University of Japan (Japan)
80 Curtin University (Australia)
84 Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Australia)
90 CEIBS Mainland (China)
91 Chinese University (Hong Kong)
92 Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (India)
94 National University of Singapore (Singapore)
