By Francis Chan

NANYANG Business School has broken into the top 25 in a world ranking of Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes - a first for Singapore universities.
Nanyang was placed 24th globally, up from 46th last year in the Financial Times' (FT) closely watched annual MBA rankings.

NUS Business School also had something to boast about. Its MBA programme rocketed 46 places to this year's 35th spot in the FT table from its previous 81st position in 2007.

NUS was unranked last year due to 'incomplete data collected'.The previous dean, Professor Christopher Earley, had stepped down and a replacement had to be found.

As for the Singapore Management University, it launched its first MBA programme only last year.

The FT ranking assesses three broad criteria: the career progression of alumni; international diversity; and how well ideas are generated.

The Nanyang Business School scored well in these areas: career progress, gender diversity and the international nature of its board, faculty and students.

Interestingly, the proportion of female MBA students there rose to 40 per cent from 28 per cent last year, the FT ranking showed.

Nanyang and NUS were also ranked fourth and sixth respectively among its peers in the Asia-Pacific region, which also includes Australia.

The FT MBA rankings have traditionally been dominated by business schools in the United States and Europe.

However, the latest FT rankings show that more business schools in countries such as China, India and Singapore are beginning to emerge as strong players in the lucrative MBA arena.

For example, in 1999, 17 of the top 20 business schools were from the US, but fast-forward to 2009 and there are only nine US business schools in the top 20 rankings.

This year, Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and the London Business School jointly topped the rankings, while Harvard and Columbia were placed third and fourth respectively.

'I am delighted that our business school is moving in the right direction and our Nanyang MBA programme is gaining worldwide recognition,' said Professor Jitendra V. Singh, dean of Nanyang Business School.

'We are building a world-class business school. One that Singapore and all of Asia will be proud of.'

As for NUS, besides being ranked 35th overall, its MBA programme was also ranked 11th in the world for the 'international experience' that it provides to its students, and 47th in career progression.

According to Professor Bernard Yeung, dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor of Finance at NUS Business School, that was proof that its MBA can help graduates make significant strides in their careers.

'The strong endorsements of NUS Business School's MBA by the alumni and employer respondents in these two prestigious surveys is not only an affirmation of the quality of the NUS MBA, but it is also an affirmation of Singapore's position as a global education hub,' said Prof Yeung.

Other Asian business schools which have made it to the top rankings include Shanghai-based China European International Business School (eighth) and the Indian School of Business (15th).

By coming eighth in the rankings, the China European International Business School was also the first China-based business school to make the FT's list of top 10 business schools globally.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 28, 2009.