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The 20 best executive MBA programs in the world

Madison Hoff

2021-06-23T10:00:00Z

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Wharton Graduation — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania placed second in QS Quacquarelli Symonds' 2021 ranking of the best executive MBA programs in the world. REUTERS

QS Quacquarelli Symonds just released its latest ranking: the best executive MBA programs globally.
HEC Paris moved up to the top spot, pushing Penn's Wharton School down to No. 2.
The following are the 20 executive MBA programs that ranked at the top of the 2021 QS ranking.

20. CUHK Business School

This images shows a drone view of The Chinese University of Hong Kong University, or CUHK.

Location: Hong Kong

Overall score: 74.1

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

19. Warwick Business School

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 77.2

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

18. NYU Stern School of Business

Location: New York

Overall score: 78.3

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

17. Columbia Business School

Location: New York

Overall score: 78.5

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

16. National University of Singapore Business School

This image shows the steps leading to the National University of Singapore Business School Mochtar Riady Building. On the wall next to the steps in silver letters reads NUS Business School Mochtar Riady Building.

Location: Singapore

Overall score: 80.7

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

15. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management

Location: Illinois

Overall score: 81.7

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

14. Cambridge Judge Business School

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 83.2

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

12 (tie). IE Business School

Location: Spain

Overall score: 84.0

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

12 (tie). UCLA Anderson School of Management

Location: California

Overall score: 84.0

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

11. Yale School of Management

Location: Connecticut

Overall score: 84.2

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

9 (tie). ESADE Business School

Location: Spain

Overall score: 84.7

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

9 (tie). Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley

california berkeley haas school of business — The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. gary yim/Shutterstock

Location: California

Overall score: 84.7

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

7 (tie). London Business School

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 85.6

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

7 (tie). INSEAD

A wall outside a building at INSEAD's Europe campus in France that has in large gray letters the word INSEAD. — INSEAD's Europe campus in France. Delpixel/Shutterstock

Location: France

Overall score: 85.6

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

6. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Location: Illinois

Overall score: 86.7

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

5. Oxford Saïd Business School

Said Business School building at Oxford University. There is a bus in front on the building and two people walking.

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 87.0

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

4. MIT Sloan School of Management

Location: Massachusetts

Overall score: 89.6

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

3. IESE Business school

Location: Spain

Overall score: 91.9

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

2. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Location: Pennsylvania

Overall score: 92.0

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

1. HEC Paris

Location: France

Overall score: 92.3

Read more about the executive MBA program here.

Method and data source

The latest ranking from QS Quacquarelli Symonds uses different metrics to find the best executive MBA programs around the world.

Graduates of executive MBA programs can expect a boost in pay. According to the 2020 Executive MBA Council Student Exit Survey based on 1,619 students, the average salary and bonus together for program graduates was $193,200, a 14.1% increase in compensation after completing the program.

This ranking is also different than QS' best full-time MBA programs. QS writes that EMBAs are typically for managers that already have between 10 to 15 years of work experience.

To rank the executive MBA programs from around the world, QS used five different metrics that measure different aspects of being a highly-rated program.

These metrics are the program's reputation for employers (which has the highest weight for determining the overall score), thought leadership, executive profile, career outcomes, and diversity (which has the lowest weight for determining the overall score). Executive profile includes the work, management, and C-suite experience of students in a program. The five metrics are then used to calculate an overall total score.

Using this method, HEC Paris placed at the very top for 2021, moving up two spots and taking over The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania's spot from the 2020 ranking. Among the five metrics, HEC Paris' highest score was in employer reputation where it scored a 99.7 out of 100.

"Driven by increases in its levels of international diversity, and by improvements in the one-year salary uplift that it offers its graduates, HEC Paris has taken the title of world's number-one Executive MBA provider," QS Quacquarelli Symonds wrote in a press release.

The full ranking, along with how each program scored in each of the five metrics, is available on QS Quacquarelli Symonds.