Vlerick in FT business schools ranking 2011

Last week, the Financial Times released its annual business schools rankings for 2011. Some potential students don’t take this ranking into account when they choose a business school. From my experience, almost every candidate at the on-campus assessment I attended knew the rank of Vlerick and its position compared to other schools.

The top 3 global business schools (Global MBA ranking) are the LBS (London), Wharton and the HBS (Harvard). The first Asian B-school is 6th (Hong Kong UST). Vlerick is 55th and only Belgian B-school in this rankings. One of the candidate sitting next to me during the on-campus assessment was also applying to Rotterdam School of Management; this school is 36th. The graph below shows that Vlerick continues its steady progression to the top (the lower the better). If Vlerick continues to progress at an average of 14 places per year, it will be the first B-school in 2015! :)

The top 3 in the EMBA rankings are: Kellogg/Hong Kong UST, HEC Paris/LSE/Stern and Columbia/LSE. Vlerick is 81st and the only Belgian B-school in this rankings too. As the graph below shows (the lower the better), 2011 is the worst year for Vlerick in this EMBA rankings since it is ranked. I’m sure Vlerick has an explanation for this.

In the European Business school rankings 2011 (published in December last year), HEC Paris, LBS and Insead are the top 3. Vlerick is 13th and 1st Belgian B-school: Solvay is 35th, IAG-Louvain is 45th and Antwerp is 54th. When you look in the past, you see Vlerick went fast to the top-20 but has now some difficulties entering the top-10. At least, the last 5 years were rather stable (compared to other Belgian B-schools).

FT Belgian B-school ranking (the lower the better)

Finally, remember it’s just a ranking. It only has value if you give value to it. And you have other important aspects in a B-school that will certainly better suit your needs than a rank. However, it’s good to see the progression of Vlerick.

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