Tanaka ranked 47th internationally
The Tanaka Business School's MBA programme has been ranked 47 in the world in a special report published by the Financial Times. The report, which heralds the return of a stable MBA market, charts recent rises in both the number of recruiters looking to employ graduates and the number of students applying to MBA programmes as evidence of the programme's eminent return to success.
The news follows recent ambivalence shown towards the degree, with recruitment and salaries decreasing, leading many to question the validity of the programme. However, if the FT article is to be believed, this year will see the "MBA programme re-establish itself as the degree of choice for the world's business elite."
No doubt this all comes as good news to Imperial's business school students; slightly more disappointing news, however, is College's position in the respected broadsheet's rank. Coming in at place 47 out of the 112 top global institutes surveyed, Imperial College's Tanaka Business School narrowly made the top 50, being outranked by 7 other UK institutes including Cranfield School of Management, Lancaster University Management School and City University. The data was obtained from two main sources: the business school itself and their alumni who graduated three years ago. Criteria used to determine the rankings were based on three areas: The alumni's career development and salary purchasing power, the diversity of the school, and each school's research capabilities.
Whilst achieving a rank of 47 overall, College's relative position based on individual criteria was highly variable, with some commendable achievements as well as other somewhat less desirable results. In what may come as a surprise to students struggling to make ends meet in one of Europe's most expensive capitals, the course was ranked 23 for value for money, in terms of future salary. So rest assured that all those baked bean dinners and pints of value snakebite will one day be a thing of the past. The career progress rank of Imperial graduates was also in the top 25.
Imperial College was singled out for its performance as one of the top ten universities in two special league tables, being ranked 7 place in the Best in Entrepreneurship category and 8 in terms of Highest European Salary.
However, Tanaka ranked in the bottom 30% for both placement success and research, coming in 71 place in each and achieved a paltry 88% in International Experience. Perhaps most shockingly, the School had one of the lowest Salary Percentage Increase values (a measure of the percentage increase in salary three years after graduation) possessing a value of just 84%. Hopefully the result of a high starting salary!
Despite the questionable scores, Tanaka Business School Principal, Professor David Begg, was optimistic about the results, which, although just inside the top 50, are a marked improvement on past year's performances: "We have risen 30 places in the last 3 years and there is more good news in the pipeline. While rankings should always be interpreted with care, we are encouraged to see that we continue to be ranked the top school in Europe for entrepreneurship and in the top ten worldwide. In purely financial terms, we remain in the top 25 in terms of value for money and 27 in terms of the absolute salary level achieved by alumni."
Professor Stefan Szymanski, Director of Tanaka's full time MBA programme, was also pleased by the result and encouraged to see the Schools academic achievements continue to rise: "There have been considerable changes to the Imperial MBA over the last three years and we believe that these will help to further improve the standing of our programme internationally.
"As well as the influx of a substantial number of new faculties, which has expanded our research strength in entrepreneurship, finance and innovation, we have redesigned our programme material to focus even more sharply on the career needs of our students. As you would expect from one of the world's most creative universities, the Imperial MBA marries business knowledge with innovative thinking to produce a year's worth of practical experience to enhance any career."
