Latest research reveals the business schools employers prefer to recruit from

A record 604 employers from 42 countries around the world voted during 2008 for the business schools from which they prefer to recruit MBAs. 40% of employer respondents were based in North America, 30% in Western Europe, 17% in Asia-Pacific, 5% in Latin America, 8% in Eastern Europe and 1% in Africa and the Middle East.
QS regards employers and HR decision-makers worldwide to have among the most objective and informed opinions on the “best” business schools. HR decision-makers look beyond rankings and examine the facilities, the course content and the quality of students. The better the performance of MBA hires from particular schools, the more likely those schools will be voted for by employers and feature well in this research. Allegiance to particular schools is not gained or lost by one good or bad MBA hire, but by a sustained experience over several years.
The schools securing the most employer votes by region are: Harvard and Wharton in North America; INSEAD and London Business School in Europe; INSEAD Singapore and Melbourne Business School in the Asia-Pacific region; EGADE and IPADE in Latin America and America University in Cairo and Bar-Ilan University in Africa and Middle East.
This truly global piece of research identifies the most popular schools in each region of the world, because there are a growing number of employers seeking talented MBAs at a regional level. Traditional MBA employers remain committed to hiring from between 30 to 70 top-tier business schools, located in North America, Western Europe and Asia. However, “The pressures of globalisation mean that, beyond the traditional MBA employers, there are a growing number of regional MBA employers who may not have the budget to pay the salaries demanded by MBAs from elite schools. For MBAs who are proactive in their search and flexible in terms of salary expectations, this is expanding their range of opportunities, even in a time of recession,” says Ben Sowter, Research Director at QS.
The “QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009” consists of 72 schools in North America, 70 schools in Europe, 40 schools in Asia-Pacific, 12 schools in Latin America and 6 schools in Africa and the Middle East. No other piece of MBA research covers such a geographically diverse set of schools. In 1999, only 15 schools outside of North America and Europe featured in the research, compared to 13 schools from India and China alone, this year.
In the report, business schools are presented alphabetically in clusters, based on achieving similar numbers of employer votes. The top cluster of 33 business schools from the ‘QS Global 200 Business Schools Report’ in North America, Asia and Europe, each achieved an index of employer votes* of over 20%, whereas in Latin America and Middle East the 4 best performing schools ranged between 9%-11%.
The full report will be online on Thursday 29 January 2009 on www.topmba.com and made available to candidates registering to attend the QS World MBA Tour in North America, Europe, India and Asia in Spring/Summer 2009.
Tables: The top cluster of business schools in North America, Europe and Asia achieving an index of employer votes of over 20% (in alphabetical order):

 
Tables: The top cluster of business schools in Latin America and Africa, Middle East, achieving an index of employer votes of between 9% and 11% (in alphabetical order):
 

Source: “QS Global 200 Business Schools Report 2009”, compiled by QS Quacquarelli Symonds

* Notes:

About the “QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice”

Sample:
The 2008 survey was conducted during the Spring, Summer and Fall of 2008 and represents one of the largest exercises QS has undertaken in terms of geographic scope and level of detail. More than 4000 employers were surveyed, with complete responses received from 604 companies in a record 42 countries. This year’s survey represents the best balanced so far in terms of worldwide geographical distribution. This represents 50% more employer respondents than any other MBA survey and up to ten times the level of non-US respondents than any other MBA survey.

Employer Response by Industry Sector:

 
Amongst respondents, 597 expressed their personal direct involvement in MBA hiring. Only 7 HR managers (1%) of respondents expressed their views without direct personal involvement in MBA hiring. These views have still been counted if these HR managers are employed by companies which recruit many MBAs.

 
Methodology:
Index of Employer Votes
Each employer is asked to list, unprompted, the international schools from which they have recently attempted to recruit MBAs. The number of unprompted votes is given to each school.
Employers are then asked to identify the schools they regard as attractive for the purpose of MBA hiring from a selection of regions around the world. Schools are divided into regions and employers are encouraged to identify all schools from which they might consider recruiting MBAs. They are asked to pick from a list of the 400 schools most often mentioned in the previous year’s research. Each time a school is voted from the list, it is given a score of 1, resulting in the number of prompted votes.
In order to ensure balanced results not subject to influence from the economic cycle, an average number of votes is taken from the current year research and the previous year research.
The prompted and unprompted votes are added together and the total votes is indexed against the best performing business school, which is given an Index score of 100%. This does not affect the relative positions of schools in any given year. This percentage score is known as the school’s Index of Employer Votes. Only employers that confirm that the company hires from more than one country, are classified as international MBA employers and generate the Employer Votes in the final results.
Employer Position

This research does not intend to infer an overall ranking of schools from the results. The tables list schools in alphabetical order, in clusters, by region. The relative Employer Position of schools is displayed, based on the average number of employer votes in the previous two years.
For the full listing of top 200 business schools please contact:

Anie Keshishian
PR Coordinator
QS Quacquarelli Symonds
t    +44 (0)20 7284 7240
e    anie@qsnetwork.com

For media enquiries, please contact:

Simona Bizzozero
Media Relations Manager
QS Quacquarelli Symonds
t: + 44 (0) 7880 620 856
+ 44 (0) 20 7284 7248   +44 (0) 20 7284 7240
simona@qsnetwork.com

Notes for Editors:
About QS
QS is the world’s leading information specialist in  the higher education sector. QS mission is to enable motivated people to fulfil their potential by fostering educational achievement, international mobility and career development. Through our exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, we link undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers.
Our communities include: QS TopUniversities.com, QS TopGradSchool.com, QS TopMBA.com, QS Global-Workplace.com.
QS World MBA Tour
The QS World MBA Tour is the largest program of recruitment and information fairs for business school applicants. In 2008 over 80,000 MBA applicants visited 75 events in 41 countries, meeting on average, 80 accredited business schools at each event.  The QS World MBA Tour next visits North America in February, Europe in March, Africa & Middle East in late March and India and China in July. Registration information and participating schools are available at www.topmba.com.

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