WBS Success: A league of its own

**With unemployment pegged at 8 per cent and youth unemployment yet higher at one in five, competition for jobs is fierce. Standing out from the masses and showing employers that you are what they are looking for is essential.** In light of Warwick Business School’s (WBS)
recent rise up the Financial Times (FT) league tables – jumping up 10 places to 24th globally for their Executive MBA programme – you wonder whether university rankings make much of a difference in that elusive hunt for a job. Could it be that gilded ‘University of Warwick’ title
on your CV that acts as the all-important booster?

Professor Mark Taylor, dean of WBS certainly thinks so. He notes that the rise in rankings recognises not only the quality and efforts of their staff and students, but also corporate partners. This is a view shared by Professor Abhinay Muthoo, head of the Economics department;
who agrees that whilst league tables are helpful in aiding prospective students, they do not necessarily reflect all positives or negatives. They should be taken with a degree of caution. One size certainly does not fit all: certain institutions shine for their respective disciplines. Durham’s recognition for Law, or Edinburgh’s for Medicine are perfect examples.

Still, with the expense of a degree taken on in the hope of landing a good job, you want to make sure to get your money’s worth. WBS Masters programmes are some of the most expensive on campus with fees of £20,000 up to £30,000 per year. The FT league table of MBA programmes ranks WBS as 93rd in the world for value for money (considering alumni salaries, fees and other costs such as the opportunity cost of not working and course length) with US universities in the top 30. However
not to be disheartened, the same table ranks WBS 59th for career progress (changes in level of seniority post-MBA) and 39th for weighted salary.

So, what does WBS’ success say of UK Higher Education in general? Can the school pose a serious challenge to top US schools such as Stanford, Harvard, Wharton or MIT in the long run? And what does this signify for Warwick University as a whole?

The FT MBA table puts US institutions on top, with 50 plus schools in the top 100. The UK comes in at second place with 15 schools. UCAS applications are furthermore 12 per cent down. Though this may not mean that postgraduate applications or University intakes have changed dramatically, THE (Times Higher Education) notes that while UK Universities have been improving, scores across criteria have slipped an average 6.7 places in the top 200, as contenders from Asia and
Australia climb the ranks. Though US institutions again dominated, a similar trend of slipping off the top 200 could be seen in the THE world ranking. The University of Warwick rose 33 places to 124th. Foreign institutions performing strongly, rather than UK ones stagnating, are attributed to be behind this change.

Time will tell whether WBS will become a serious contender for the top ranks among the American giants – hauling up the UK with it, or a product of the national rise. Three UK institutions are already in the THE top 10 – WBS’ aspirations are credible. Furthermore, as University rankings are averaged across the schools and departments, any success in ranking that WBS makes could only have a positive effect on the Warwick as a whole. WBS’ recent logo change to align themselves with the university identity indicates that the school is well aware of their connection to the broader campus. This is all well and good, but what does the league table success of Warwick in general or WBS in particular mean for its students in the light of getting a job post-University?

The TIMES’ ranked the top 150 universities in the world from which applicants are most frequently picked by chief executives and chairmen among leading companies in 10 countries across the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. University of Warwick came in at 92nd place while Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Oxbridge were among the top 10. Even so, the QS Top Universities’ ranking of employability which considered recruiter views of the quality of university graduates, the level of graduates in employment a year after graduating and career support services did not include any of the above in their top 70. More surprisingly, based on HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) Warwick was nowhere to be seen. Kevin Duthie, director at Ernst and Young observes that while degrees from for example Oxbridge are of an advantage, he prioritises UCCA points, the overall university grade and performance at assessment centres and interviews for his view of the applicant’s technical ability.

So, perhaps the ranking successes of Warwick schools would be best thought of simply as indicators of quality and possibilities. What you make of your degree and the resources at Warwick to increase your job in the future is up to you, but attending an institution that is well recognised for its success in research and teaching can never hurt.