What the ranking report tells us about the Executive MBA in 2024

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In a world of shifting market trends, evolving workplace demands, and the restructuring of entire employment sectors, many executives see the value of an Executive MBA as a way to reflect, recharge and reskill — if not to reset, with a new career.

According to EMBAC, the professional network for business schools that offer EMBAs, demand is holding up well for the qualification, which is typically studied alongside a job, by people in their late thirties, with approximately 15 years of work experience. Some new programmes have opened, and class sizes have risen slightly.

The FT’s own data from the 2024 Executive MBA Ranking of 100 top schools reveals a similar pattern, albeit with some additional caveats. Inflation-adjusted salaries of alumni three years after finishing their courses are in decline.

There is significant variety in course content, and differing perceptions of which themes are taught well: on average, graduates rated strategy courses highly but law and tech lessons less so.

Executive MBA Ranking 2024

Read the ranking and report

The share of employers willing to fund, partially or fully, an EMBA is modest and the trend is downwards. That may reflect the fact that, while the degree can provide a way for companies to retain promising senior talent and allow managers to upskill, many also decide to quit and change employer or professional direction.

Nearly 30 per cent of the latest group of alumni surveyed by the FT decided to launch start-ups, with a sharp jump in the share doing so as they entered their mid and late forties. That age group may have started to lose out in the battle to reach the top of the corporate pyramid, or be seeking new challenges at a time when they have already accumulated significant experience, contacts and even capital.

In this report, we feature some graduates who feel their EMBA gives them fresh confidence in their existing roles, often supported by coaching or mentoring to guide their professional development.

We explore how they may seek insights into emerging fields, such as artificial intelligence and data analytics or sustainability. And our guest professor argues that taking into account climate change is an increasingly necessary business consideration, both in meeting regulatory requirements and because of the direct risks the environment poses to operations.

Despite the costs and sacrifices required in attending EMBA and other courses, business schools have continued to fundraise and beautify their campuses — not least through donations from alumni and other benefactors that have helped some build impressive art collections and add to their appeal.

We examine the different models deployed for funding, selecting and displaying art. More might be done by many of the institutions to seek imaginative ways to integrate artists’ ideas and qualities — such as creativity and innovation (not to mention marketing) — directly into the core curriculum. But their works have at least brightened the student experience, launched some into careers in art and sparked an interest in collecting by others.

More broadly, we offer practical advice, drawing on the wisdom of EMBA staff as well as past and present students. Prospective applicants should reflect on why they want to study for a degree beyond the superficial appeal of salary or promotion; and they should take into account the values of the school, the nature of the format of learning, and the strength of the alumni network.

A more diverse class of students — by professional background (we profile a French gendarme), citizenship, ethnicity, gender and social class alike — can be more enriching, and many of these factors are taken into account in our rankings.

As always, readers are encouraged to explore the individual data points alongside the composite aggregated ordinal ranking, selecting in our online table the particular factors that may be most relevant to them. Many schools offer some, or all, parts of their courses on different campuses or in partnership with other schools around the world, for instance.

Applicants should also consider a wide range of factors that are difficult to distil into metrics, some of which we describe in accompanying articles and other reports, including our Responsible Business Education Awards series. Above all, candidates should visit schools and talk to faculty, staff and past and present students before taking what could be a transformative decision. 

Andrew Jack is the FT’s global education editor