SSE Russia is at the top of the Public Rating of Russian Business Schools

The web portal "MBA in Moscow and Russia" (mba.su) with the participation of the Russian MBA League and alumni associations of business schools presented the annual results of the Public rating of business schools. In 2021, Stockholm School of Economics in Russia is among the top ten of Russian business schools and took second place on the list.

"Prospective students often consult business school rankings to better select an educational program. The first place here, of course, belongs to the The Financial Times rating. Its reputation is recognised both abroad and in Russia. The Public Rating of Business Schools is gaining popularity in Russia, and this is certainly a good thing," Anders Paalzow, president of the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia, says. – “However, we can see that the list of top schools varies from ranking to ranking, and the same school may rank differently from year to year, as the methodologies are very different and may change. And this information needs to be carefully examined and considered. Of course, many people who choose a business school, rely on the numbers given in the rankings. But when it comes to the Executive MBA program, in my experience, the choice is based primarily on the relevance of the courses on offer, which are important for developing one’s own competencies".

"This public rating of business schools is a 'soft' one. It includes not only well-established business schools with an academic tradition on the market, but also younger structures of business education," Yury Tazov, President of the Russian MBA League, says. "MBA and Executive MBA programs are complex educational products; they may differ from one business school to another, and they are constantly developing," he believes.

"mba.su ranking is undoubtedly a positive phenomenon in Russia. Applicants have a benchmark that has been verified over the years and that includes all the main schools. However, it should be noted that this rating has one crucial difference with the Financial Times one - the FT compares similar programs from different schools, while the Russian rating evaluates schools as a whole, mixing MBA and EMBA graduates,"  Vsevolod Krylov, director of SSE Russia's Executive MBA programs, comments.

Indeed, the ranking takes into account the scores of graduates of MBA and Executive MBA programs regardless of the form of study (full-time, modular, blended, distance learning, etc.).

SSE Russia EMBA programs alimni of 2017-2019 took part in the survey, which was conducted between February and the end of May 2021.

** In contrast to the methodology for calculating results in previous ratings, where the values of all criteria were equal, in 2021 the values (degree of influence on the final school assessment) were taken as follows: income growth and career development - 1.0; personal and professional development - 0.67; business connections - 0.33. Despite the fact that the majority of Russian graduates (57%) point out that the main value of MBA, obtained in business school, for them are the knowledge and skills for successful work, this parameter received less value in the rating than income growth, which was considered significant only by 9% of respondents.

A total of 1,330 2017-2019 MBA/EMBA graduates from 47 business schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok participated in the mba.su survey. Of those, business owners account for 18%, top managers for 33%, middle managers for 38%, and line managers and specialists for 14%.

In 2020, 1,260 2016-2018 graduates from 52 business schools completed the survey. Of those, 23% were business owners, almost half - 48% - described themselves as top managers, 25% as middle managers, and the rest as line managers.