In a recent report released by the Financial Times, Sauder placed 81st overall among the world’s top 100 academic institutions for MBA programs and second among Canadian institutions.
One of the criteria on which the Financial Times based their rankings of these universities was employment data. They looked at the average salary as well as the average salary percentage increase of alumni three years after graduation. According to this year’s statistics, Sauder MBA graduates earn $95,427 on average and see a 67 per cent salary increase three years after completing their degree.
The average alumni salary of a Sauder MBA grad saw a $6,546 increase when compared to last year's ranking. By contrast, the average 67 per cent salary increase among the alumni dropped by 14 per cent this year.
Graeme Menzies, director of prospective student marketing, communications, and social media at UBC, said that, despite some variations in the different categories of the data, Sauder’s current ranking for MBA programs is still impressive.
“It’s good considering that there are 17,000 universities in the world -- to be in the double digits is impressive,” said Menzies. “Everyone would agree that UBC is in the top of the top, the top one per cent category.”
In terms of how these statistics will potentially influence student attendance at the university, Menzies said that since every ranking institution relies on different methodologies and categories, they will all produce different biases in their data. Therefore, the degree to which these statistics affect student attendance will primarily depend on the student’s personal preferences and educational needs.
“I think [Financial Times’] bias is a little bit more on money. They’re looking to see how much [students] could make,” said Menzies.
Menzies also said that the statistics released by the Financial Times would likely have more important implications for international students.
“The main difference is for the international students. Obviously, they’re paying the higher fee and many of them are moving a long distance from home,” said Menzies. “When they look at the rankings information, they look at it a lot harder because the decision and the commitment that they’re making is a lot more intense.”
This year, Sauder’s placement among Canadian universities was second only to the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, which placed 53rd on the list. Other Canadian institutions on this list included the University of Alberta (86), Queen’s School of Business (86), Western University’s Ivey Business School (97) and McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management (100).
Menzies said that while UBC’s general ranking among Canadian institutions has usually always been fairly close to McGill’s in the top tier, he does not find the Financial Times’ placement of Desautels to be particularly surprising.
“U of T is fairly consistently the number one ranked Canadian institution," said Menzies. "In Canada, UBC and McGill are usually second place or third place on there, [but] when you break it down by program, it begins to change.”