The Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) BOSS magazine has, once again, ranked the Melbourne Business School MBA at number one in Australia.

• ‘Australia’s top MBA programs’ by Rose-Anne Manns [AFR]
• ‘Financial Review BOSS 2011 MBA Rankings’ [AFR BOSS]
• ‘AFR BOSS: No.1 MBA Again’ [MBS]

According to these rankings, the top five MBAs in Australia are from these business schools:

1. Melbourne Business School
2. University of Queensland – Business School
3. Monash University – Department of Management
4. QUT Graduate School of Business (Queensland University of Technology)
5. Australian School of Business – AGSM

BOSS conducts this research every other year and its results are based on two components: an alumni survey (weighted 55%) and data supplied by schools (weighted 45%). 21 business schools participated this time and 19 of these made it into the rankings (two didn’t, due to insufficient alumni responses). 1,600 b-school alumni from the graduating classes of 2008-2010 (inclusive) took part in the survey.

Digging Deeper

Looking more closely at the results:

• The AGSM and MBS MBAs have the highest tuition fee ($64,800 and $64,000, respectively) followed by Monash and Macquarie ($57,260 and $56,000, respectively). The rest of the MBAs have tuition fees under $50k.
• 96% of MBS alumni reported that their MBA provided them value for money.
• MBS, AGSM, and Macquarie MBAs have the greatest number of class contact hours over the entire degree (720, 686, and 640 hours, respectively). As it happens, these are also three of the four most expensive degrees. The others all have fewer than 600 class contact hours. 
• MBS was ranked 3rd for satisfaction, 5th for value for money, and 1st for research.
• When survey respondents were asked which school they would attend if money and location were not an issue, MBS came out on top again.

International Rankings

The two most notable international rankings of business schools come from the Financial Times and the Economist. In their latest rankings:

• The Financial Times ranks AGSM at #35 and MBS at #53
• The Economist ranks MBS at #44, Monash at #58, MGSM at #64, Curtin at #76, UoQ at #81

FT will be kicking off research for its 2012 b-school rankings later this month.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks at Melbourne Business School. Fortunately, the more recent recent news has been all good.

The latest of this is the excellent news that Acting Dean Professor Jennifer George has now been appointed Dean of MBS. Congratulations to her and I look forward to seeing what direction she steers MBS towards; particularly now that there’s no merger to think about. We should have exciting times ahead.

Melbourne Business School’s (MBS) MBA has been ranked #1 in Asia by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Not only that, the MBA has been ranked #17 in the world (up from #26 last year) and this puts it ahead of INSEAD in Asia and even Columbia and MIT Sloan in the US!

Good job, MBS!

Quick update: The MBS Board met at an Extraordinary General Meeting on Wednesday to discuss the proposed merger between Melbourne Business School and the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Economics and Commerce (see previous post for details).

They decided to postpone their decision for six weeks so a more detailed consultation with constituents could be carried out. The MBS donors (i.e. the constituents of the Board) will now vote on the proposed merger and change of constitution on 7 October.