US Schools Allege Superiority

Are US MBA programs better than those in Europe and Asia?

It’s a legitimate question, given that European and Asian programs have been steadily improving and moving up the international rankings. There are now two European programs in the Financial Times’ top five, up from one in 2013. And during the same period a half dozen European programs, and one Asian business school, have achieved big gains in the ranking, with London Business School snatching the No. 2 spot from none other than Stanford.

But to hear US programs tell it, the United States is still king of the hill. A survey of admissions directors at 204 US business schools by Kaplan Test Prep found that they are ‘overwhelmingly confident’ that they’re doing a better job of preparing MBA graduates for today’s workforce than their European and Asian counterparts.

America is number one?

In all, 95% of respondents said American business schools do a better job than European programs, and 92% said the same about Asian programs. But that doesn’t mean they’re resting on their laurels. The Kaplan survey also found that 26% currently offer a course to teach students how to code, an increasingly important business skill in our tech-centric world, while 64% don’t, and the rest were unsure. Of those that don’t offer such a course, only 7% said they may develop one.

“American business schools continue to produce many of the world’s top leaders in a host of industries, from finance to technology to healthcare,” said Brian Carlidge, executive director of pre-graduate and pre-business programs at Kaplan. “But despite the confidence in their ability to meet workforce needs, many business schools understand they must continue to evolve so that their graduates have the know-how needed to thrive in a competitive, increasingly technology-driven global economy.”

For now, at least, the alleged superiority of US business schools remains in the court of public opinion. Casting doubt on the findings is a 2013 Gallup poll that found about a third of business leaders feel US schools are not preparing graduates adequately.

Kaplan also cites an ‘employability’ survey of 2,500 international recruiters in 20 countries conducted by Emerging, a Paris-based human resources consulting, where Cambridge beat out Harvard and Yale, and the University of Tokyo topped Columbia and the University of California at Berkeley. But that was a university ranking, not business school specific. The QS Global 200 rankings are based on employer opinion, but are only regional, not pitting US, European, and Asian programs against each other.

Non-US schools retaliate

Obviously business schools outside the US see things differently.  Peter Tufano, dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, which ranked No. 3 among European business schools in the 2014/15 QS ranking, said the survey results are “ill-informed”. Tufano, who was a senior associate dean at Harvard Business School before joining Saïd in 2011, said anyone familiar with both US and European schools would agree.

“The top programs in Europe prepare their students as well as – or even better than – American counterparts,” he said. “For example, my Oxford MBA class is a truly international group, with no country representing anything close to a majority, so that students learn in a global environment and are prepared to lead globally. In contrast, American schools are still predominantly US-focused, and these survey results reflect this type of narrow outlook.”

He adds: “I do not accept the survey results as being a fair reflection of reality.”

Peter Zemsky, deputy dean and dean for strategic initiatives and innovation at France’s INSEAD, the No. 2 European program in the QS ranking, said home country bias is natural, but US programs are far from perfect.

“Many US schools are well-positioned for the increasing importance of technology in business. However they are generally much less well-positioned for the ever-increasing importance of the spread of economic activity globally,’ he said. “Here the European schools benefit from the much great cultural diversity of their region, especially relative to the US, and are generally recognized as leading on international business. Finally, Asia remains the key growth market for global business and one can expect continued growth and sophistication of business schools based in Asia.”