Global MBA Rankings 2018 - QS vs Bloomberg Businessweek

Learn more about the QS Global MBA Rankings 2018 methodology.

QS CEO, Nunzio Quacquarelli, highlights the fact that, “The Businessweek ranking places an emphasis on employability, which is fundamental to most MBA applicants.” While this is a major positive, the way in which data is gathered, and used, causes issues which we shall come onto shortly.

The Businessweek rankings are complied, in part, using an employer survey (35% of total) completed by 686 recruiters, an alumni survey (30% of total) completed by around 10,000 students who graduated between 2009-2011, and a student survey (15% of total) that gathered 9,461 responses from graduates in the class of 2017. 

What should be one of the biggest strengths of the Bloomberg Businessweek Best Business Schools 2017 ranking, actually turns out to be one of its major weaknesses. According to Quacquarelli, “The major limitation is the employer survey sample, which covers only a few hundred employers, most of which are based in the US. The ranking is therefore not very helpful for candidates seeking to study or work outside the US.”

In contrast, the QS Global Employer Survey that forms part of the QS Global MBA Rankings 2018 has collected 158,000 responses between 2012-2017, with more recent responses holding a greater weighting.

Additionally, the Bloomberg ranking looks at how many MBAs are hired from each school. This greatly favours schools with larger class sizes. The Bloomberg Businessweek Best Business Schools 2017 also relies on a significant amount of data collected from students and alumni. As with any ranking that relies on student and alumni surveys, there is always a danger that responses will be embellished, or exaggerated to improve the ranking of an individual’s respective school.