FRANCE: Global list of business schools published

The Paris-based educational consulting company Eduniversal, part of the SMBG group, has published a list of 1,000 top business schools ranking them by their "capacity for international influence" and grouped into nine geographic regions. SMBG, which specialises in reference services and publications for educational and higher educational institutions, claims that the Eduniversal initiative is "the first stone of a global federation of education."

The rankings were determined by a poll of the deans of a selection of 1,000 business schools drawn up by an International Scientific Committee of Eduniversal containing senior business academics from around the world, after studying 4000 websites and numerous publications.
Numerical quotas were applied to each of the nine regions. Between October last year and March 2008 the deans in each of the regions were asked which business schools they would recommend to anyone wishing to study in the country. The 1,000 business schools selected are located in over 150 countries, covering 97% of the world's population. Eduniversal said they included universities and public and private schools but "most of all they were selected giving their international and national influence and recognition."

The regional tables show that in the UK, for instance, the top business school with international influence is the London Business School with a recognition rate of 675 of the 1,000 deans, followed by the London School of Economics with 547 and the Cranfield School of Management at 464. In the US the top school is the Harvard Business School with 731 references, followed by MIT (640) and Stanford University (577). The top French business school with international influence is INSEAD with 644 references.

By contrast the leading Chinese business schools of Tsinghua University, Peking University and Fudan University are rated by only a third of the deans.

Eduniversal said its survey allowed students to choose the best schools for their course in the region of their choice while benefiting HR departments generally as well as business schools themselves, faculty and the media. It provides three addresses: eduniversal.com, for the official selection, eduniversal.net for the deans' recommendations and eduniversal.biz for executives of the selected business schools to edit the published information.

A report from the consultancy said: "Eduniversal gives business schools the opportunity to gain visibility amongst their target audiences and to measure their performance, evolution and durability both in their zone of influence and internationally."

International scientific committee members included Prof. Eon Smit, director of the University of Stellenbosch business school, in South Africa; Prof. Aneeta Madhok, dean of the Center of Human Resources at S.P. Jain Center of Management, of Dubai (the United Arab Emirates) and Singapore; Prof. Virginijus Kundrotas, president of ISM University of Management & Economics, Lithuania; Prof. Sung Joo Park, dean of KAIST Graduate Management School, South Korea; Prof. Edson Luiz Riccio, associate professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Prof. Michel Nedzela, associate dean, the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, Canada; Prof. Michael Wood, former executive dean of Curtin Business School, Australia; Axel Schumacher, associate dean for international relations of the European Business School at the International University Schloss Reichartshausen in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany.