Executive MBA Ranking 2026: Alumni pay recovers from Covid dip

{"text":[[{"start":7.4,"text":"Earnings for graduates of the world’s top executive MBA programmes have surpassed 2021 Covid-era levels for the first time, according to data from the latest FT EMBA ranking."}],[{"start":18.04,"text":"Salaries averaged $237,892 for alumni three years after completing degrees assessed for the 2026 Executive MBA Ranking, which is topped by the joint EMBA from Kellogg School of Management in Illinois and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Click here for the ranking."}],[{"start":38.06,"text":"The rise in salaries marked continued real growth, adjusted for inflation, since a low of $217,855 in 2023, and finally exceeded the adjusted 2021 benchmark of $235,908. Pay still remains below the inflation-adjusted recent peak of $284,862 reported in 2018."}],[{"start":61.62,"text":"The recent uptick suggests employers are again willing to pay a premium for top executives from leading EMBA courses — most of whom are experienced senior managers aged 35-56 who study while working."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":74.8,"text":"The data is derived from the 2026 ranking of 100 business schools, with the Kellogg-HKUST degree regaining the top spot ahead of Global EMBAs from Ceibs in China and Iese in Spain. The other providers in the top tier are Skema, based in France, multi-campus European business school ESCP and Guanghua-Kellogg, run jointly by the Chinese and US schools."}],[{"start":99.48,"text":"The EMBA has come under pressure over tuition fees and opportunity costs for busy executives at a time of economic and employment uncertainty, as well as the disruption to education from AI."}],[{"start":113.68,"text":"Frederik Anseel, dean of HKUST, says there is growing competition, including on price, from other business schools, notably those with large classes — but he has not seen a fall in demand for his joint EMBA. “We are preparing people for chief executive and chair roles. We need to have a long-term view on how AI is changing the economy and entire industries,” he says."}],[{"start":133.48,"text":"There was also a small rise in 2026 in employers’ willingness to contribute to the costs of an EMBA, following a long-term fall. Even so, more than half of alumni said they had covered the full cost themselves, and many go on to change employers and careers or start their own businesses after study."}],[{"start":150.56,"text":"The most recent survey of applications to a broader list of international business schools conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council, which runs the GMAT entry test, showed an overall drop in 2025 in demand for EMBAs of 15 per cent among domestic participants and 16 per cent among prospective students from other countries."}],[{"start":172.08,"text":"Business schools, which agree to take part in the FT ranking and submit data alongside their alumni, must be approved by one of the two large accreditation agencies, AACSB or EFMD: Equis. The ranking takes into account measures including graduate salaries three years after completing the degree, alumni career progress, the volume and quality of academic research, and the gender and international balance of students and faculty."}],[{"start":198.44,"text":"The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is top for its faculty’s research, followed by Columbia Business School in New York. This criterion accounts for 10 per cent of the rank’s total weighting and assesses recent publications in a list of leading academic journals, the FT50, to which there were three changes this year."}],[{"start":216.8,"text":"An additional standalone FT analysis and ranking explores the impact of research among decision makers in the worlds of business and policy. Three European business schools — IMD in Switzerland, Tias in the Netherlands and Edhec in France — are ranked top for faculty writing in practitioner-oriented academic publications. Wharton, Columbia and the University of Zurich are highest for articles cited by policymakers."}],[{"start":241.84,"text":"Wharton is highest in the impact ranking for research grant volumes and the range of external funders over the past three years, another proxy for research quality, followed by Switzerland’s St Gallen and Zurich. Authors at Harvard, Western University: Ivey in Canada and University of Virginia: Darden contributed the most popular teaching cases."}],[{"start":262.12,"text":"In the main EMBA ranking, the Kellogg-HKUST degree is top for the strength of its alumni network, followed by Edhec and CUHK in Hong Kong. Yale School of Management and University of Cambridge: Judge were top for students achieving their aims for studying, followed by Skema in France."}],[{"start":279.84,"text":"The highest shares of students from outside business schools’ home countries were at Spain’s IE and Iese, and ESCP. Among faculty, Incae Business School in Costa Rica was top, ahead of IMD and BI Norwegian Business School."}],[{"start":293.72,"text":"Just two schools — France’s Neoma and Audencia — reported gender parity among faculty, with women the majority at two other schools. Bayes and Audencia had gender parity among students, with eight schools reporting more women than men in their classes."}],[{"start":316.96,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1791795064_8952.mp3"}