The Financial Times Releases 2016 Online MBA Ranking

The Financial Times has updated its Online MBA Ranking for 2016. 

For the third year in a row, IE Business School's Global MBA program leads the ranking. The FT points to overall salary of graduates—$178,569 three years after graduation, the highest of any school surveyed—as well as salary increase—39 percent, also after three years—as primary reasons for IE's staying power.

Also for the third year in a row, Warwick Business School's MBA by Distance Learning takes the runner-up spot. The school's graduates were found to have salaries of $143,799 three years after graduation.

For the second year in a row, the University of Florida Hough Graduate School of Business' Online MBA takes position number three. Durham University Business School's Online MBA has taken position number four from Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, which has dropped to spot number seven.

Indiana University's Kelley School of Business holds steady at position number five, While Babson's Online MBA rose one spot to take number six.

One new entrant in the top ten this year is that AGSM's MBAx program has debuted at number eight, making it the first Australian program to make the ranking. AGSM's program replaces the online MBA from Syracuse University, which was ranked number eight last year but has dropped off the ranking in 2016.

The online MBAs from University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Arizona State University's Carey School of Business round out the top ten. See a complete list of the MBA programs and their rankings below.

This is the third year that the FT has ranked online MBA programs. A total of 18 programs took part in the ranking process; 15 made it to the ranking. To be included, a business school must have accreditation from AACSB and/or EQUIS and have run online programs for at least four years. Although flexible/hybrid MBA programs are included in the ranking, at least 70 percent of an MBA's curriculum must be delivered online to be considered. Participants on the courses must pass a selection process before enrolling and an examination process before graduating.

The data on which the ranking is based was collected through two surveys, one filled out by the schools and one by each MBA program's alumni. The alumni survey accounts for 65 percent of the ranking. The most important criteria include salary today, which accounts for 20 percent of a school's ranking, salary increase (10 percent), online interaction (10 percent), and FT research rank (10 percent), which is calculated according to the number of articles published by each school's full-time faculty.

Below is a table which shows the 15 schools ranked in the FT's Online MBA Ranking 2016.

The FT's Online MBA Ranking 2016

For more information on MBA rankings, please see  FIND MBA's MBA Rankings page.

Image: IE Business School