Vlerick programs now 14th in the FT European rankings – should I worry?

Yooohoo! After the (very) bad performance of the EMBA this year, a rebranding exercise and a new website, the whole schoool is back at the 14th position in the FT rankings for 2012! The Academic Dean can of course be very proud of his cursus. As usual let’s have a look at the numbers …

So, Vlerick Business School is at the 14th position, a stable position on a 3 years average (up from 16th last year however). There are of course big names before Vlerick: HEC Paris (2nd), London Business School (3rd), INSEAD (4th), IMD (7th), etc. But there are also big names after Vlerick: Cranfield (16th), Imperial College (18th), ESSEC (19th), London School of Economics (27th), etc.

Compared to other Belgian business school, Vlerick is better placed (than for the EMBA rankings e.g.):

• Antwerp Management School is climbing from an average 52nd to the 40th rank;
• Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management goes down from a 42nd to the 46th rank;
• IAG-Louvain School of Management goes down from a 52nd to the 59th rank.

So if I take again my table from the previous “ranking” post (best of each row in bold):

Ranking	Vlerick B.S.	Antwerp M.S.	Solvay B.S.E.M.	IAG-L.S.M.
FT European Business School Rankings 2012	14 (=)	40 (↑ av. 52)	46 (↓ av. 42)	52 (↓ av. 59)
FT EMBA Ranking 2012	90 (↓ from 77)	50 (entry)	–	–
FT Global MBA Ranking 2012	70 (↓ from 71)	–	–	–
The Economist Full time MBA ranking	66	–	–	–
Aspen Institute Beyond Grey Pinstripes	Vlerick	–	–	–

The methodology used by the FT is well explained. There you will learn that this ranking assesses the performances of 4 MBA programs in each school. And it looks at the breadth but also quality of these programmes. So indirectly it represents the aggregate of lots of parameters (see here for the list on Vlerick). But is seems to put some emphasis on the salaries (at program entry and after) as well as the number of female, international and PhD faculty.

So – back to the title – should I worry? ;-)

Well, just go to the previous post about rankings and read the conclusion ; I haven’t changed since. But congrats anyway to the Vlerick team for this good performance!

Photo credit: 14 by xiaming, on Flickr (licence CC-by-nc-sa)

Vlerick EMBA program now only 90th in the FT rankings – should I worry?

From time to time, you wonder if you chose well your business school (well, that’s also when you procastinate instead of working on your statistics assignment – that’s another story). It all started with an e-mail stating that the MBA at Antwerp Management School earned a 50th position in the FT EMBA ranking (while Vlerick EMBA is down from the 77th position to the 90th) …

Ok so let me gather some facts first (best of each row in bold):

Ranking	Vlerick B.S.	Antwerp M.S.	Solvay B.S.E.M.	IAG-L.S.M.
FT European Business School Rankings 2011	16 (↓ from 13)	62 (↓ from 57)	46 (↓ from 42)	51 (↓ from 48)
FT EMBA Ranking 2012	90 (↓ from 77)	50 (entry)	–	–
FT Global MBA Ranking 2012	70 (↓ from 71)	–	–	–
The Economist Full time MBA ranking	66	–	–	–
Aspen Institute Beyond Grey Pinstripes	Vlerick	–	–	–

There is a limited number of rows because I was focused on Belgian business schools that are not in the WSJ ranking nor in the BusinessWeek ranking for instance. Thus Vlerick is in three types of configuration: either ranked alone (we don’t know how the other would behave), either in first position (EU ranking 2011), either in second position. Why can’t Vlerick be first everywhere? (and also I’m only comparing Belgian business school).

Before going into the details of what components are in the EMBA ranking of 2012, there is something that is worrying: whatever business school, whatever ranking, all Belgian business schools are going down! How come? I thought that more and more students were chosing European business schools, mostly because they seem more prepare to face the economic crisis and cheaper (this does not necessarily mean of better quality I agree).

So let’s compare VBS and AMS (again, best of each row in bold, “Past” column indicates if this factor includes data from past years in the FT comparison) …

	Vlerick B.S.	Antwerp M.S.	Weight in FT (%)	Past in FT
Rank 2012	90 (↓)	50	–	–
Rank 2011	81 (↓)	–	–	–
Rank 2010	61	–	–	–
3 year average	77	–	–	–
Salary total (US$)	115,204	175,930.00	20	y
Salary increase (%)	54	53	20	–
Career progress rank	41	2	5	y
Work experience rank	90	35	5	–
Aims achieved rank	33	82	5	y
Women faculty (%)	23	22	3	–
Women students (%)	19	35	3	–
Women board (%)	16	0	1	–
International faculty (%)	25	14	5	–
International students rank	81	67	5	–
International board (%)	100	86	2	–
International course experience rank	66	30	5	–
Languages	2	2	1	–
Faculty with doctorates (%)	95	84	5	–
FT doctoral rank	80	88	5	y
FT research rank	77	92	10	y

So clearly we see the AMS is recruing people declaring a much higher salary (entrance fee is approximately the same) and declaring a very good career progress after the EMBA. AMS classes has nearly the double of women than VBS. And where the VBS makes a good difference with AMS, the FT doesn’t give that much weight to it (e.g. women on board, international board, etc.).

What is interesting is that AMS alumni declared being very pleased with their career progress. While Vlerick alumni declared being very pleased with their aims achieved. The first sentence is not surprising. Let’s compare the two graphs of alumnis’ current job title 3 years after graduation:

So – back to the title – should I worry?

I don’t think that Vlerick should change its behaviour (exclusively) according to rankings. However it could work on recruitement, career counselling / progress and research in order to improve some criteria in the FT ranking. But on a personal level, you know where you should work on your own and where Vlerick can help you …

Some economic conferences about India in Leuven / Brussels

I don’t know if the international business trips changed with the re-branding nor if destinations are still the same nor if second-year students will still be able to go. But, as this blog is accustomed to posts about India, here are two events that may interest you too:

On Monday October 1st, 2012, Jayanthi Chandrasekharan will present a lecture about “India and EU: Trade and Beyond“. It will be at 6.30PM at Ravenstraat / Erasmusplein in Leuven. More info on the Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies website.

From October 8th to 11th, there will be a theme week: “India and development cooperation – from recipient to donor“, in collaboration with KH Leuven, HUBrussel and HIVA. Again: more info on the Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies website.

First Indian Evening at Vlerick on June 5th, 2012

After some days and nights of hard work :-), we are proud to announce the first Indian Evening at Vlerick Ghent, on June 5th, 2012!

The idea of this evening is to give Vlerick students (and any other people interested) insights on India, its businesses and the opportunities future businessmen will find in India. An interesting perspective would be to hear opinions of  business leaders on these topics as well as their stories on doing business with / in Belgium and, more broadly, Europe.

The confirmed speakers currently are:

• Baron Philippe Vlerick, CEO of Uco Textiles, CEO of the Vlerick Group, member of the board of directors of our beloved School and Chairman of the Belgo-Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (a.o.);
• Hemakiran Gupta, Country Manager at Tata Consultancy Services;
• Venkat Subramanian, Professor at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Strategy)

More info will follow soon. But be sure to save the date! June 5th, 2012, at around 18.00!

Photo credits (edited on March 12, 2012): Textile Industry, Raipur, Chhattisgarh (all rights reserved) by Ice Cubes and India Inc: How India’s Top Ten Entrepreneurs are Winning Globally – book cover (all rights reserved) by Vikas Pota on Flickr (the book).
Ok, for those interested, the Bollywood actors previously displayed here and in the presentation are Aishwarya Rai (picture) and Hrithik Roshan (picture) :-)

How Belgium is selling itself in China

For the New Year of the Dragon, Belgium is selling itself on Chinese social networks Baidu and Weibo.

I don’t know you but for me, I watched the 7 first seconds as a demonstration of a missile attack from China on Belgium (and France, the Netherlands). I’m not sure it was the best way to demonstrated direct flights from China to Europe …

Diplomatic and economic relationships between Belgium and China are quite recent. However these ties were quickly strengthened with the fast Chinese economic growth. For instance, look at the amount of activities organized by the The Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (BCECC) … Here, Belgium tries to attract Chinese tourists to Belgium and by doing that, strengthen economic exchanges too. They try to attract Chinese tourists and businessmen in Belgium ; Vlerick will be sending some Belgian business students in China in a few months …

For those who are going to other parts of the world, here are the Belgo-indian chamber of commerce and industry, the American chamber of commerce in Belgium and the Belgian chamber of commerce for Southern Africa.

Chinese New Year 2012: January 23

Like in many Asian countries, the Lunar New Year in China will be on January 23, 2012 (in our Gregorian calendar). The Chinese New Year (aka the “Spring Festival” or 春节) is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. According to the Chinese calendar, this year is the year of the water dragon (龙). I thought it would have been interesting to know for the lucky ones who are going to China this year :)

There are usually many celebrations with many customs and traditions. I guess there will be also celebrations in Belgium but as it’s not very easy to find them (except maybe at your local Sino-Vietnamese restaurant), here are three activities found for you:

• Jan. 21 at Salle Cadol, Brussels: Tết Nguyên Đán (Vietnamese New Year)
• Jan. 23 at Viage Casino, Brussels: Chinese New Year
• Jan. 28 at Théâtre Marni, Brussels: Asian New Year (Vietnamese Tết, read their newsletter on page 12)
• Jan. 28: Maasmechelen Village celebrates the Chinese New Year (week 19-31 in fact, see details in link)
• Jan. 29 at Salle de l’Orangerie, Brussels: Tết Nguyên Đán (Vietnamese New Year)
• Feb. 9 in Leuven: Chinese New Year Gala organised by the Confucius Institute at Group T (more info)
• Feb. 12 at Athénée Royal d’Etterbeek, Brussels: Tết Nguyên Đán (Vietnamese New Year)

If you know any other celebrations, feel free to post them in comments below!

Photo credit: Smiling dragon in the Forbidden City, Huế, Vietnam (from my photos on Flickr, licence CC-by-sa)
Edited on Jan. 10 to add Maasmechelen Village celebrations. Edited on Jan. 20 to add the three celebrations from belvietnam.

Vlerick MBA Experience Day 2012/1

The first annual Vlerick MBA Experience Day is announced and will take place on Friday 27 January at 6.30PM in Leuven. Ok, if it starts at 6.30PM, it’s not really a “day” but whatever …

On this Open Day, we (part-time MBA students) will follow our usual class (it will be a session of Negotiation Skills with Prof. Dr. David Venter). But at the same time, people interested or curious about the MBA at Vlerick can join us, follow the class with us and also interact and ask all kinds of questions during the pauses around an informal drink.

Everyone has her/his own interests and her/his own way to get information about Vlerick and its MBAs. One way to track the interest of people is to watch how they landed on your website or blog. For instance, here are some questions typed in Google that led to this blog in the last 7 days:

• admission test Vlerick
• classes start 2013 mba Vlerick
• day of a vlerick student
• does an mba have exams?
• educational leave Belgium MBA
• HEC Paris vs Vlerick
• how to succeed your interview at vlerick
• motivational interview for mba
• ranking belgian business schools
• Vlerick admission test calculator
• Vlerick ft ranking, 2011
• Vlerick incompany project modular
• Vlerick Leuven on campus assessment
• Vlerick modular mba exams
• Vlerick MBA [+study] [+INBEV] [+ranking]
• Vlerick PTMBA
• what i remember from my mba at Vlerick
• what questions do Vlerick ask

(One good thing for me is that by typing them in a post, I re-inforce the position of this blog on these topics in search engines :) )

I am not saying everyone will be able to answer all of these questions during the Experience Day (but the presence of the Programme Director and the Programme Manager will certainly help). But imho it’s a good way to have a glimpse on MBAs at Vlerick. If you are interested, just leave a message below or contact me directly via e-mail and I will forward your request to the Programme Manager (she wants your name, job title, organization and e-mail address).

Photo credit: Open Day 2010 by WTO on Flickr (license CC-by-nd)

4,778.00€ for Movember

Congratulations to the gentlemen of Vlerick for raising 4,778.00 € for Movember! This makes them the first Belgian team in terms of amount raised. I agree the second and third are individuals but that was also the strategy, I guess: to set up a team to raise more money and to raise more awareness :) Globally, Belgium is amongst the last countries in terms of total amount raised (most probably because its low level of registration – I guess). Congratulations anyway!

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