The Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA program has surpassed all leading institutions in the world as it has once again been ranked no. 1 by the Financial Times 2009 EMBA global rankings.
The success of the part-time Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program is largely attributed to the superb career track records of the graduating class in 2006 and their geographical diversity in terms of nationality and overseas working experience. The program is jointly offered by Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The average number of years of working experience of the 2006 class was 14, ranked second among 95 schools surveyed by the Financial Times. Their ability to climb further up the corporate ladder after graduation was boosted significantly as they were able to fetch an average of 81% more in salary. The ranking exercise tracked the performance of students who graduated in 2006 to take into account their career advancements three years after attaining the EMBA qualification.
Professor Steven DeKrey, Senior Associate Dean and Founding Director, Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA added, "Our students come in as high-caliber executives working for major organizations with distinguished achievements, but are still able to take their careers to a new height upon graduation. We should congratulate the top-notch faculty members Kellogg-HKUST has brought from around the globe. Going forward, we will continue to strive for academic excellence in all aspects to offer a thoughtful and cutting-edge program."
Commenting on this achievement, Professor Tony Chan, President of HKUST, said, "We are proud to be ranked the top of the world again. For five years in a row we have consistently been ranked the world's top three. This lofty ranking is yet another recognition of the global leadership position of our Business School in offering executive education programs. We will continue to strive to be among the world's best in everything we do. This is the UST spirit."
Professor Sunil Chopra, the interim Dean of Kellogg School of Management and Professor Leonard Cheng, Dean of HKUST Business School are both very delighted with the exceptional result.
Prof. Chopra and Prof. Cheng both credited the achievement to that fact that the partnership of Kellogg and HKUST is in a unique position to bring the best of both worlds, and to provide an executive education which caters to both the advanced economies as well as emerging markets.
At US$ 345,111 per annum, their average salary three years after completion of the studies is listed number one among all institutions.
The spread of geographical locations represented by students who flew to Hong Kong to attend classes over the weekends, and those who lived here but held a non-Hong Kong passport is the second most diverse of all ranked EMBA programs.
A half of the current class of the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program is based outside of Hong Kong with their offices operating out of London, New Jersey, New Delhi, Bangkok, Seoul, Helsinki, Moscow and a number of cities in Mainland China. Around a third of them is originally from Asia, followed by America (27%), Europe (22%), Oceania (10%), the Middle East (2%), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (7%). The average age and years of work experience of our current cohort is 37 and 14 respectively.
This is the second time since 2007 that the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program has topped the international rankings chart.
The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program has been consistently ranked among the world's top 10 by the Financial Times since debuting on the newspaper's annual global EMBA rankings in 2003. The program has been consecutively ranked among the world's top three since 2005.
The 18-month program allows participants to continue their careers while they study. As part of the unique cross-continent program, students may complete up to two global electives at Kellogg's partner schools in Chicago, Miami, Tel Aviv, Vallendar, Toronto and Hong Kong.
This year's Financial Times rankings table includes the world's top 95 EMBA programs. The programs are evaluated based on the quality of their alumni, school and program quality, and faculty research capabilities. Alumni quality is determined by salary and career advancement on completion of the program, work experience, seniority and program feedbacks. School quality is measured by the diversity of faculty, students and advisors, the global nature of the program and the proportion of faculty with PhD degrees. The research ranking is determined by the scholarly output of faculty in top academic journals.
