QS Business Master's Rankings: Methodology

We used a number of data points to determine return on investment, which can often be one of the hardest metrics to accurately predict with many permutations and possibilities.

We looked at a 10-year return on investment, mapping average post-graduation, taking into account forgone salary as well as tuition and cost of living (using Mercer Quality of City Living Ranking). We also take into account the percentage of graduates accepting employment within six months of finishing their studies.

10 years gives a representative and meaningful return on investment insight compared with some rankings that use a five-year approach. No loans or scholarships were included in this methodology. We recognise no ROI calculation is perfect but believe we have come up with the best approximate ROI calculation with the data available.

We look at the time it takes to pay back the cost.  The shorter the payback month the better score the school receives.

This metric gives us an accurate impression of the reputation of a programme and is based on university and business school nominations of academics from around the world. Academics name the institutions which they believe are the strongest in their subject area. The survey has grown to become the world’s largest surveys of academic opinion, and, in terms of size and scope, is an unparalleled means of measuring sentiment in the academic community. 

We use Elsevier’s Scopus database to assess the research intensity of schools. 

We look at the percentage of the faculty within the business school with a doctoral degree.

To give a clear representation of diversity within a programme we looked at the percentage of female students and faculty members. 

We also looked at the percentage of international faculty overall at the business school, and the international mix of students on the program.

Q) How is the data validated?

A) All data received from schools was subject to verification checks, including, where possible, comparison with historical data, peer schools and other published sources. QS reserves the right to alter information if a more accurate source is found. Employer/academic questionnaires were also audited for multiple or false entries. 

Q) What if a school didn’t provide all the data required?

A) When data was not supplied (by a minority of schools), QS surveys such as the QS Global Employer Survey, the QS Global Academic Survey were used in conjunction with QS research into publicly-available data to make an accurate estimate. Examples of sources include schools’ employment reports and class profiles.

Q) If a school didn’t provide data how can you be sure the information used was accurate?

A) Information used in these cases was compared with a number of sources and verified as best as possible to produce an accurate estimate. Examples of sources include schools’ employment reports and class profiles. 

Q) How are weightings fairly applied to get an overall score?

A) We use z-scores to ensure the data is reliably combined to produce an accurate and fair overall ranking.

Q) Why are there schools missing who you might expect to be present?

A) Schools are excluded if they did not fit the criteria necessary to be present in the ranking, if the program was too new, or not enough data was provided. In addition, we only accept business schools that have earned AACSB, EFMD or AMBA accredited or have received 3+ Stars in the prestigious QS Stars audit. 

Q) Why are some ranks missing?

A) Post-publication, QS was made aware of a few schools which were not eligible for the ranking. We will then normally remove the programs from the ranking, but the rest of the schools stay in their initial positions.

Q) We’re a business school and want to be involved in the next rankings. What do we need to do?

A) Contact [email protected] to find out, and to ask any other questions you might have regarding the rankings.

Q) Which of the programmes can I also take online?

We suggest you visit the institution profiles to get more information on how to contact the schools for this information.

Q) Where can I see the costs of the programmes?

We suggest you visit the institution profiles to get more information on how to contact the schools for this information.

Q) Why don’t you display all ranking data used?

We will try to do this in the future. At the moment we prioritise displaying the rankings themselves.

Q) Do you do undergraduate rankings?

The full suite of QS Rankings can be found in full on our websites.