On Feb. 12, the Financial Times released its 2023 Global MBA Ranking that raised UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business full-time MBA program to a position ranked seventh internationally and fourth in the United States among programs such as Columbia, Harvard and Stanford. This ranking marks a substantial increase from the previous year, when Haas tied for a position of 14th globally and ninth in the country.
Haas climbed in the rankings because of program upgrades in multiple areas evaluated by the Financial Times, according to a Haas press release, including increased faculty research publications, improved gender balance in the student body, faculty and Haas board, higher alumni career progress rank and an employment rate increase.
“We worked hard to provide ample research support so that the faculty could be highly productive,” said Jennifer Chatman, co-associate dean for academic affairs at Haas, in an email.
The Federal Times altered its 2023 global MBA ranking system from previous years to further emphasize diversity and sustainability, which it said has a large influence on societal impact in the business world, according to a press release. The ranking system is still centralized on salary level, covering average salary and weighted salary adjusted for sector three levels after completion and wage increases from before the MBA program to present day.
Other categories include “value for money,” overall satisfaction, career progress and service, aims achieved, international mobility and course experience and full-time faculty, environmental, social and governance, or ESG, rank. The methodology also takes into consideration the distribution of female and international faculty, students and advisory board members, the percentage of the class employed after three months of degree completion and faculty members possessing doctorate degrees. New considerations include quality of alumni networks, student sector diversity and school carbon footprint rankings.
According to the Haas press release, the MBA program’s international rank rose a great deal due to the inclusion of the carbon footprint category, which assesses the program’s focus on strengthening ESG, as well as education on ESG concepts. A consistently high-ranked category for Haas remains alumni salaries, where the program ranks fifth globally.
The ranking evaluated 142 schools in total for 2023, surveying alumni three years after their MBA program completion with a requirement of at least a 20% response rate, which is lower than their usual cutoff because of COVID-19 accommodations.
