NTU MBAs value for money: global ranking
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is one of the world's most value-for-money ones, trumping prestigious American institutions in offering its graduates a higher return on investment (ROI), said The Economist.
The magazine used data from its 2013 global rankings of full-time MBA programmes to calculate ROI one year after graduation. It did this by dividing salary increases post-MBA against foregone salary and the cost of tuition fees.
The Nanyang MBA offers a 30.8 per cent ROI one year after graduation, making it 39th out of 109 institutions worldwide.
It beat the MBA programmes offered by two other institutions in Singapore, which The Economist also ranked: Insead, which has a campus here, ranked 58th, with a ROI of 24.4 per cent. The National University of Singapore was 106th, with a ROI of 10.8 per cent.
Topping the charts is HEC Paris, with a 66.5 per cent ROI. The University of Hong Kong is first in Asia, at 60.2 per cent ROI, and third worldwide.
Being ranked 39th is the latest feather in the cap for the Nanyang MBA. In January, it was ranked 38th in the Financial Times' global ranking of MBA programmes; this study did not distinguish between part-time and full-time programmes.
In The Economist's 2013 global rankings of full-time MBA programmes as a whole, NTU emerged 64th, up from 72nd in 2012. This was the highest ranking for a Singapore business school. Every year, 80 students enrol in the Nanyang MBA full-time, and 40 for the part-time programme.
Referring to the ROI ranking, Ravi Kumar, the Shaw chair professor and Nanyang Business School dean said: "It is gratifying that our commitment to our students' interests is recognised. I am glad that the world-class education our students receive is paying dividends in their lives."
Surprisingly, prestigious American institutions rank low on ROI a year after graduation.
In 109th place is Pennsylvania Wharton, at 6.3 per cent ROI. The ROI for Harvard, Stanford and Columbia stood at the low end of double-digit figures.
The Economist said that two-year MBAs at prestigious American institutions tend to be the most expensive; an MBA at Wharton, for example, costs about US$330,000 (S$413,000) on average.
The immediate return on such degrees is relatively small, as graduates tend to land jobs only a few notches above their previous posts.
The Economist added, however, that although shorter and less expensive MBA programmes around the world may bring higher immediate returns, MBAs from prestigious US schools are still likely to reap higher returns in the long run.
~News courtesy of Business Times~
