IE Business School Tops New EMBA Ranking from The Economist

Spain's IE Business School has the best Executive MBA program in the world, according to a new EMBA ranking from The Economist. Graduates coming out of that program receive $228,915 per year in salary, on average, which is an increase of almost 60 percent from their pre-EMBA salary. 

The University of Oxford's Said Business School takes the runner-up spot in this year's ranking, rising two places from its previous spot at number four. The EMBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, which was the number one program in the last ranking installment, this year takes position number three.

Kellogg's joint degree programs also fared well this year: the school's joint offering with Canada's York University Schulich School of Business takes the fifth spot; its dual-degree EMBA with Germany's WHU Business School is in the sixth spot, and another joint EMBA offering with HKUST Business School comes in at position number 11.

Big movers

A few business schools made substantial jumps in the ranking. IMD Business School's EMBA, for instance, which was ranked 10 in the previous ranking, has dropped off the list completely. On the other hand, Thunderbird School of Global Management's EMBA, which wasn't ranked at all last time, takes spot number seven this year (Thunderbird has put its EMBA program on pause following a merger with Arizona State University's Carey School of Business.

Spain's IESE Business School, which was ranked number five in the last installment, dropped 20 positions. Concordia University's John Molson School of Business, which was ranked 47 previously, has dropped off the list entirely.

A full list of the top 25 EMBA offerings can be found below.

This is The Economist's second bi-annual EMBA ranking, which launched in 2013. This ranking only lists EMBA programs from business schools that are ranked in the publication's full-time MBA ranking. It ranks the programs on a variety of metrics, from categories like quality of students, student diversity and quality of faculty. Fifty percent of the ranking is determined by career development metrics, such as post-EMBA salary increase and goal fulfillment.

Here's a list of top 25 EMBA programs, as ranked in The Economist in 2015:

1. IE Business School - Global Executive MBA
2. University of Oxford – Saïd Business School - Oxford Executive MBA
3. Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management - Kellogg Executive MBA Program
4. UCLA/NUS Business School - UCLA-NUS Executive MBA
5. Northwestern - Kellogg/York -Schulich - Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA Program
6. Northwestern - Kellogg/WHU - Beisheim - Kellogg-WHU EMBA
7. Thunderbird School of Global Management - Exec MBA
8. ESMT - Executive MBA
9. University of Chicago – Booth School of Business - Executive MBA
10. Yale School of Management - Yale MBA for Executives
11. Northwestern - Kellogg/Hong Kong UST - Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA
12. Texas Christian University – Neeley School of Business - Neeley Executive MBA Program at TCU
13. Southern Methodist University – Cox School of Business - SMU Cox Executive MBA
14. University of Georgia – Terry College of Business - Terry Executive MBA Program
15. Columbia Business School - EMBA-New York
16. University of Michigan –  Ross School of Business - Michigan Ross Executive MBA Program
17. New York University –  Stern School of Business - NYU Stern Executive MBA Program
18. University of Texas at Austin – McCombs School of Business - Texas Executive MBA Progarm
19. UCLA Anderson School of Management - UCLA Anderson Executive MBA Program
20. Cornell University – Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management - Cornell Executive MBA Metro New York
21. Nottingham University Business School - Executive MBA
22. ESADE/Georgetown - Global Executive MBA
23. University of Notre Dame – Mendoza College of Business - Notre Dame Executive MBA Program
24. University of Maryland – Robert H Smith School of Business - The Smith Executive MBA
25. IESE Business School - Global Executive MBA