CEIBS Climbs to 22nd Position on the Global Top 100 MBA League Table

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Yesterday, the authoritative British business newspaper the Financial Times released this years global 2005 MBA rankings.  Climbing a dramatic 31 places, CEIBS is now ranked as the 22nd best MBA programme in the world, making it the top MBA business school in the Asia-Pacific region for the second consecutive year. In the previous year, CEIBS ascended 37 places.  These past two years have been an incredible time for recognition of CEIBS' programme quality.

The MBA rankings are based on 20 variables.  CEIBS' leading strengths include success of employment three months after graduation (1st), percentage salary increase after completion of the programme (2nd), international experience (4th), international faculty (13th), international board (13th) and placement success (18th).

These significant movements up the world's best MBA rankings can be attributed to the programme's strict evaluation and selection of MBA candidates that have attracted candidates from leading international schools including University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University (only 40 percent of applicant interviews are successful, 19% of the intake class are international students). In addition to this, the school has effective placement services for students which have resulted in 99 percent of graduates finding employment within 3 months after graduation and CEIBS MBA graduates experiencing a 191 percent increase in salary after completion of their CEIBS degree.  CEIBS is the first business school to recognize the importance of career services for its MBA students by establishing a specialized Career Development Centre for its students.

In addition to the school's high quality and strict standards, CEIBS' successes can also be attributed to macroeconomic reasons. The criteria on which CEIBS makes the biggest leap this year is the "weighted average of salaries three years after graduation" (converted to US$ using purchasing power parity rates, constituting 20% of the total weights). The rank of CEIBS in this field goes up from 98th in 2004 to 49th this year, implying the improvement of MBA graduates in both their quality and their market value, as well as the increase of absolute salary levels due to China's sustainable and rapid economic growth, and the increase in salary level (purchasing power) given the current weak US dollar. From 2001 to 2004, the average annual salary of CEIBS' MBA graduates was a two-digit increase for three consecutive years, reaching 250,000RMB in 2004. Further significant increases on the weighted salary criteria for global MBA rankings are expected in the future.

This year the CEIBS MBA programme will take some initiatives by offering a Finance and Marketing track specialty, adopting the semester and credit system, increasing the number of elective courses while decreasing the number of compulsory course requirements, removing the three-month internship module, and imposing higher language requirement for the students, and more. CEIBS' MBA programme will be delayed until early September in 2005 in order to cater to the convenience of exchange students from abroad.  In addition to this, with the current transitions of China's economy especially after its entry into the WTO, CEIBS plans to aid in the increase in demand for greater senior management by increasing MBA intake sizes to 180, compared to 120 in previous years. Moreover, CEIBS will focus its programme and career development services to focus more on the high-end service and manufacturing industry (such as consultancy and investment banking). The school will continue to encourage its graduates to seek international employment and start their own businesses. 

Receiving recognition from its counterparts, CEIBS' MBA programme has over 43 partnerships with world-renowned business programmes including London Business School (5th in this year's ranking) and IESE in Spain (12th) in exchange of its programme's students and allowing discounted tuition fees. Recently announced on December 2, 2004, the UK Finance Minister announced in an annual budget report that MBA graduates from the world top 50 business schools would automatically obtain the right to work for 12 months in the UK without needing to apply for a work permit, making CEIBS the only qualified business school in Asia to take advantage of this opportunity. For those aspiring to have a career in China, taking any one of CEIBS' programmes allows pursuit of an internationally recognized and accredited degree without having to leave China to study abroad. This explains why in recent years, more and more people are choosing CEIBS when receiving offers from both CEIBS and overseas business schools making CEIBS the graduate business school of choice and overseas schools as a backup.

Only after 10 years of establishment, CEIBS has become the leading business school in Asia with its EMBA programme ranked 20th by FT last November and 45th in FT global executive education rankings of Open Programme last May. The school will continue to pursue its goal to become the world leading business school in the next decade.

About the Financial Times Ranking
FT started its first global MBA ranking in 1999. Business schools from around the world are ranked using the weighted-average scores of 20 criteria related to three main areas relating to the school and its MBA programme. The first area evaluates the alumni's career development and purchasing power, with 8 criteria carrying 55% of the total weights, based on FT's survey of alumni three years after graduation. The second area measures the diversity of the schools and their programmes, with 9 criteria assuming 25% of the total weight, based on a FT survey of the business schools. The third area appraises each school's research capabilities, with 3 criteria constituting 25% of the total weight, in accordance with the evaluation by some independent institute. Business schools that participate in the ranking will be selected irregularly by FT for auditing, to ensure the reliability of the data. The design of the evaluation criteria of FT's global MBA ranking keeps close steps with the development of the market-based education (reflected by the focus on graduates' competitiveness in the job market) and the economic globalization of the 21st century, and hence makes it an effective and valuable guidance and reference for those intending to open business schools and MBA candidates searching for a right MBA programme provider.