Top Business Schools Report Methodology

• Sample
• Industry distribution of employers
• Geographical distribution of employers
• Methodology

Sample

The 2010/11 survey was conducted during the spring and summer of 2010/11 and represents one of the largest exercises QS has undertaken in terms of geographic scope and level of detail.

The 5007 employers responding to the survey in 2010/11 were made up of 2,157 who were actively recruiting MBAs and 2,850 who were recruiting only undergraduates or Masters students. This compares to 743 employers who responded as active MBA employers in 2009. All employers that responded to the survey are guaranteed confidentiality for the components of their individual responses, except for any open-ended feedback they have chosen to provide, on the value of an MBA or concerns with MBA hires. For some tables in this report, for example satisfaction with MBA skills, we look at responses from employers for each of the last four years. Tables identifying short-term trends reflect the responses in 2010/11 only.

The following table gives a snapshot of some of the organizations that took part in the survey across the world. A more comprehensive list can be found in the Appendix at the end of this document.

Back to the top

Industry distribution of employers

The chart shows the spread of employers across industries. This reflects the global spread of industries, which hire MBAs. Finance, banking and consulting make up the largest sources of respondents, followed by IT/technology, manufacturing and healthcare. Respondents from the agency/headhunting industry are asked to indicate the sectors for which they are hiring. This was fairly evenly spread, with a slight bias towards financial services.

Back to the top

Geographical distribution of employers
Responses were received from across the globe. 14% of employer respondents were based in Western Europe, 8% were based in North America, 50% in Asia-Pacific (North and South East), 13% in Eastern Europe, 6% in Middle East and Africa, 5% of respondents were based in Latin America and 4% were based in Australia and New Zealand. India was the largest single source of MBA employer respondents. This breadth of response provides detailed insights into MBA recruiting patterns across the globe.

Back to the top

Methodology

In order to produce the QS Global 200 Top Business Schools, we focus on experienced HR and line managers at MBA recruiting companies; respondents from each company are asked a series of questions about MBA recruiting for the previous year and the forthcoming year. These questions relate to the hiring activity of participating companies in the country or region for which the respondent has recruiting responsibility. Employer responses to these questions provide information on the following:

A. MBA recruitment trends
B. MBA salaries and compensation trends
C. Global business school ratings
D. Global business school ratings in specialist areas

Each employer is asked to list, unprompted, the international schools from which they have recently attempted to recruit MBAs. Each time a school is selected by an employer, it receives one vote and the total number of votes is referred to as its 'total unprompted votes'.

Employers are then asked to identify the schools they regard as attractive for the purpose of MBA hiring from a selection of regions around the world. Schools are divided into regions and employers are encouraged to identify all schools from which they might consider recruiting MBAs. They are asked to pick from a list of the 500 business schools most often mentioned in the previous year's research. In order to be included in the survey, a school must have been recommended by an employer in a previous year of the research. Each time a school is voted from the list, it is given one vote, referred to as its 'total prompted votes'.

The prompted and unprompted votes are added together to create a 'total employer votes'. In order to ensure balanced results not subject to influence from the economic cycle, an average of the 'total employer votes' is taken from the current year's research and the previous two years research.

The average total employer votes is indexed against the best performing business school, which is given an Index score of 100%. This indexing does not affect the relative positions of schools in any given year. This percentage score is known as the school's "Index of Employer Votes".

This research does not intend to infer an overall ranking of schools from the results. The tables list schools in clusters, by region. The relative Employer Position of schools is displayed, based on their Employer Score in that year and a ranking within the region.

This year, we include only business schools offering full-time MBA programs and as such well known business schools like ESCP and HEC Lausanne, which only offer executive MBA, part-time MBAs and masters programs, are excluded.

Back to the top