FT 2025 Executive Education Ranking highlights growth in turbulent times
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
IMD, the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development, is the top global business school offering custom executive education programmes in the latest Financial Times rankings, and London Business School is best for open programmes.
HEC Paris of France, Iese of Spain and Fundação Dom Cabral of Brazil are all among other leading providers of open-enrolment programmes, as well as in providing bespoke custom programmes for executives in individual companies.
Anyone can apply for open programmes, which to be ranked by the FT must last at least three days for general management courses and four days for advanced programmes. Custom programmes are bespoke courses for companies, and to be ranked must have a minimum of 10 participants.
A total of 119 business schools took part in the FT executive education rankings this year, which are based on data provided by the schools and evaluations by participants. To be included, business schools must agree to take part, be authorised by either the AACSB or Equis accreditation agencies, and have programme revenues of at least $1mn in 2024.
The FT assessment comes at a time of fresh expansion in executive education, driven by economic growth and increased appetite to explore themes such as artificial intelligence, despite global trade instability and renewed political tensions sparked by the policies of US President Donald Trump.
FT 2025 Executive Education Ranking
Read the rankings of custom and open-enrolment programmes
There has been notable growth in regions including the Gulf states, with a number of business schools stepping up training for executives from Saudi Arabia and several in negotiations to open offices in the country to meet rising demand.
Sergei Guriev, dean of London Business School, says: “Executive education is growing where economies are growing.” He cautions that there is rising demand for flexibility, with “the lines between executive education and degree programmes increasingly blurred”. Guriev adds: “Global business schools should be prepared to switch, innovate and be agile.”
Melanie Weaver Barnett, executive director of Unicon, an association of business school executive education providers, says: “There is a lot of optimism about the need for learning in the corporate world, given more and more change. People need frameworks, perspectives and new ideas.”
The most recent survey among Unicon’s 123 members in 33 countries last year showed they reported a 13 per cent increase in revenues in 2023-24 from open programmes and nearly 15 per cent from custom programmes.
However, she says that at Unicon’s latest conference in Cairo this month, some members reported European companies did not want to contract with US business schools. This comes after the Trump administration imposed aggressive tariffs, indicated hostility towards Europe and pushed back on immigration, the environment and diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.
She adds that there was also a resumption in demand for face-to-face training, which has been steadily rising since the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic forced nearly all learning to be conducted online.
For open programmes, European schools dominated the evaluations given for the quality of participants, although Fundação Dom Cabral was ranked top for aims achieved, faculty and teaching methods and materials.
Iese Business School of Spain came top for overall satisfaction, followed by Case Western Reserve University: Weatherhead in the US and France’s Edhec Business School.
For custom programmes, SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan came top for overall satisfaction, teaching, faculty, follow up, value for money and likelihood of clients to return for future programmes.
Among participating US business schools, University of Michigan: Ross came top for both custom and open programmes, with Rutgers Business School, Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU, Miami Herbert Business School and Georgetown University: McDonough all taking part in custom programmes. Case Western Reserve University: Weatherhead and University of Utah: David Eccles ranked well for open programmes.
In a sign of expansion in emerging markets, overall growth in revenues reported from open programmes, and the extent of repeat business, was highest at IAE Business School in Argentina, followed by Lagos Business School in Nigeria, and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.
BI Norwegian Business School had the highest share of female executive education participants, at 64 per cent, while the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad had the lowest, at 22 per cent. Overall, executive education is heavily skewed to male participants except in North America, where 52 per cent of those attending were female.
Across the ranked business schools, faculty were also predominantly male, with women comprising just 26 per cent of professors for open programmes in Asia-Pacific and a high of 36 per cent in the UK. Typically those attending were aged in their early or mid 40s.
Leadership is the most commonly taught topic across open executive education programmes, followed by strategy, innovation, sustainability, change management and decision making.
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