Melbourne Business School still Australia's best MBA, says The Economist
Melbourne Business School's MBA program is the best in Australia, and one of the top 10 in the world for networking, according to The Economist.
The Economist's Which MBA? ranks the top 100 MBA programs at business schools around the world on career opportunities, personal development, salary improvement and other criteria.
This year's report saw Melbourne Business School's MBA hold its place in the world's top 30 with a ranking of 28, the highest of any Australian MBA.
"It's very gratifying that our MBA continues to stand tall in this challenging business climate, which is affecting everyone, and that it continues to attract top students from all over the world," Melbourne Business School Dean Ian Harper said.
In between classes, students from the current Full-time MBA class said The Economist ranking affirms that they made the right decision to study at Melbourne Business School, with several hoping to leverage its large and influential alumni network.
"Someone told me to think about where I wanted to be after my MBA and go to the best school in that region. I want to stay in Australia, and MBS has a lot of very successful alumni, so that really made the decision easy for me," said process engineer Jack Porter from Queensland.
Classmate and leader of a research group at the University of Newcastle, Krishna Feron, is hoping the connections he makes at Melbourne Business School will help him commercialise an artificial retina he has helped develop to address vision loss that affects 190 million people worldwide.
"I came here to take my research to the next level. I want to learn from the best, and MBS is the best business school in Australia. There's a lot of opportunities for one-on-one interactions," Krishna said.
For Stanford-trained biologist Amanda Kovach, the School's access to the Asia–Pacific region was a big reason for her decision to study here.
"I've worked in San Francisco for 10 years and with partners in Europe, managing global clinical trials, but I didn't have experience working with anyone in Asia. MBS is a top school in the Asia–Pacific region and that was a huge factor in my decision to come here – plus the Business in Asia program, which unique to MBS and gives you direct work experience in Asia"
The School's standing in the Asia–Pacific region was also a big factor for Melbourne chemical engineer Tamara Cherrington, who speaks Mandarin and hopes to eventually work in China, and Tom Hyatt, a former actor from the UK with funds management experience who now doubts he'll ever go back.
"I used to live with an Australian girl who said I should never go to Australia because I would love it and not want to come back. Well, I do love it and don't want to go back," Tom said.
Carolina Beunza, a former senior financial analyst at L'Oreal in Argentina, who also hopes her Melbourne Business School MBA will expose her to opportunities in region, said she's most impressed with what goes on in the classroom.
"It's challenging, but really good. The faculty members are amazing, and the international cohort is very diverse. It's all you want from an MBA."
Tasha Yogiswara, a hospitality professional from Indonesia, loves the classroom diversity too – and Melbourne's start-up and coffee cultures.
"I love to meet people from different backgrounds and cultures, which is why I chose Melbourne and MBS, which is the best school in Australia. I also love the coffee, the diversity of the people and the start-up culture here, because my long-term goal is to create my own company."
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