Among the 100 best

The Norwegian School of Economics
AMONG THE BEST: NHH’s Executive MBA programmes are among the best in the world, according to a new ranking. NHH is also among the 50 best schools in the world on social responsibility.
NHH By Sigrid Grøm Bakken

15 October 2018 14:16

Among the 100 best

NHH’s executive education programme is the only Norwegian programme on the Financial Times’ list of the world’s best Executive MBAs.

NHH’s Executive MBA programmes have this year again been ranked among the best in the world. This is according to the Financial Times’ new ranking of the world’s best executive education.

‘We are continuously working to develop and raise the quality of our executive programmes to give them a strong standing in competition with international institutions employing high-quality standards,’ says NHH Rector Øystein Thøgersen.

Single Norwegian Executive MBA

It is NHH’s MBA programmes in Global Seafood, Strategic Management and Financial Management and Leadership that are included and evaluated in the ranking.

Last year, NHH made it onto the list for the first time in seven years. The school was then ranked at number 88.

‘NHH’s Global Seafood programme was included in the assessment last year. This is a unique programme specifically designed for the seafood industry, and this gave us a leg-up onto the list. However, the programme only admits students every other year and this gives us a lower ranking this year,’ says Thøgersen.

This year, NHH’s executive education is ranked number 98 of 100 schools included. NHH is the only school on the list that has a Norwegian Executive MBA.

Read the full list here.

Among 50 best on social responsibility

The programmes included in the Financial Times’ ranking are assessed according to 16 criteria, where the candidates’ pay and career development weigh the heaviest. The percentage of academic staff with PhDs, published research articles and the percentage of female and international students and staff are also considered.

This year, social responsibility was included as an assessment criterion for the first time, and here, NHH came out as the 46th best in the world.

‘This is a category that pulls us up, which I am very pleased about. It confirms that we have relevant courses that stand their ground internationally,’ says the NHH rector.

However, a low wage increase for Norwegian candidates relative to international candidates drags NHH’s score down.

‘This partly reflects the Norwegian social model with small wage differences, and partly that macro-economic circumstances the past couple of years have led to a weak wage increase measured in a common currency. When pay and wage increase count for 40 per cent of the score, this clearly weakens NHH’s ranking,’ he says.

China on top

Kellogg/HKUST Business School in China tops this year’s ranking, followed by HEC Paris in France and Tsinghua University in China.

Thøgersen has ambitions of climbing further up the ranking.

‘I’m proud that NHH has held its position as a leading international business school, but we will not be complacent and will work hard to achieve a higher ranking,’ he says.