Making the grade
February 13, 2010
Carmen Chai
TORONTO STAR
Canadian MBA programs excel in research, successfully offer international business studies and have solid academic fundamentals. That's why six Canadian schools were named among the Top 100 global MBA programs in the 12th annual Financial Times ranking, released this January.
However, the first appearance of a Canadian school on the list was nearly halfway down – the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, No. 45.
"Canadian MBA programs are, generally speaking, very international with a mix of faculty and students, which is excellent," said Della Bradshaw, FT's business education editor and adviser of the paper's MBA rankings.
She applauded schools such as the University of British Columbia's Sauder and Rotman for their strength in research and noticed York University's Schulich is investing in academic qualifications. Sauder placed 82nd and the University of Alberta placed 84th on the list. University of Western's Ivey – where former students' salaries exceed $102,800 U.S. – placed 49th, and York's Schulich came in at No. 54. Montreal's McGill University's Desautels school rounded out the Canadian entries on the list in the No. 95 spot.
Six schools making the ranking is an "impressive" feat, Bradshaw said, adding that Canadian business schools have an extremely competitive edge on the international front.
However, employment issues and cuts in salaries and salary growth significantly determines how Canadian schools placed in the rankings, where 40 per cent is based on income.
These factors have seen Canadian schools, as a group, steadily move down the rankings over the years.
Bradshaw said figures showed 2009 Canadian graduates earned 15 per cent less income than graduates in 2002.
"Rankings take a snapshot in time of what is happening and one of the issues with MBA programs that is unlike other educational institutions, is their success or lack of success is tied to the business community they are operating in.
"This is particularly significant to Canada," Bradshaw said.
Suzanne Spragge, assistant dean, external affairs, at Rotman agreed.
"It was a tough year but as the economy improves that number will get back up, but it's hard to be competitive on salary and that's because our students want to stay in Toronto so we place the grand majority of our graduates in and around the GTA," she explained.
Eighty-three per cent of Rotman alumni were employed within three months of graduation, Spragge said, beating most Top 10-ranked American business schools, such as Wharton, Stanford and Yale, when it came to employment.
Despite strong placement figures, Canadian business schools have trouble competing with their American neighbours who treat their students as customers by offering teachers' assistants, support, organization and a high level of quality service.
Toronto has trouble recruiting finance faculty because other schools – such as Columbia, Bradshaw said, are more appealing with higher pay and campus locations in dynamic financial cores.
David Saunders, dean of Queen's School of Business also noticed difficulty in recruiting.
"Canadian schools need to continue to hold themselves up, and it's challenging to hire faculty because your school is competing with everyone around the world," he said.
Queen's was graded first for the sixth consecutive year inBusinessWeek's ranking of non-U.S. MBA schools. Queen's chose not to participate in this year's FT rankings because of program redesign.
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings
Toronto Star