Dublin, Monday, 25th January 2016: UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School’s Full-time MBA programme has been ranked 79th in the world and 24th in Europe, according to the prestigious 2016 Financial Times Top 100 Global Full-time MBA Rankings¹, published today. Rankings with strict objective criteria such as the Financial Times and The Economist are the only truly independent and internationally respected classifications by which the world’s top schools are ranked.

This is the 17th consecutive year that UCD Smurfit School has been included in the global top 100 and remains the only Irish business school listed, maintaining its status as Ireland’s leading centre of excellence in business education. It is also among less than 50 schools worldwide that have been consistently ranked in the top 100 over the last 17 years.

The rankings analyse programmes based on a number of criteria including: career progress; employment success, school and programme quality; and faculty research capabilities. Graduates surveyed from the UCD Smurfit MBA saw their salary increase 3-years post MBA by 73% to $107,185.

Commenting on the ranking, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Dean, UCD Business said: “Our 17 year presence in the annual Financial Times Full-Time MBA rankings is a significant endorsement of the Smurfit MBA and UCD Smurfit School in the context of a global business school market. The importance for UCD Smurfit School in retaining the FT top 100 ranking is a virtuous circle which allows the School to attract the best Irish and International students and retain and attract the best faculty both from Ireland and overseas. With the best students and faculty brings better graduate outcomes and a more dynamic learning environment in which cutting-edge research is undertaken. All of which means Smurfit MBA graduates are in high demand nationally and internationally. We are doing well but we are determined to do better; building on our existing strong foundations and through the continued focus on our strategy”.

Today’s acknowledgement by the authoritative FT Rankings is the latest in a series of highly respected independent validations of UCD Smurfit School’s status as Ireland’s top graduate business school.

In October last year, two further separate highly respected international rankings for 2015 – the Financial Times Executive MBA and The Economist full-time MBA rankings – both included UCD Smurfit School. The School’s programmes achieved 18th place in the European rankings (56th place in the world and a jump from 21st) in The Economist’s Full-Time MBA study and 23rd in Europe (82nd globally and a jump from 34th) in the Financial Times Executive MBA report. As with today’s FT announcement, no other Irish business schools’ programmes were featured in these annual world rankings.

Also in October, UCD College of Business was formally admitted to the Partnership in International Management (PIM) network – an invitation-only exclusive Business School network that exchanges select graduate students for one academic term. In doing so, UCD Business joined 62 other leading business schools worldwide sharing a reputation for upholding the highest degree of academic excellence both regionally and globally and driving co-operation among its students, faculty and administrations. PIM member institutions include Duke; NYU; LSE; HEC; Warwick and Chicago Booth.
Last month also saw UCD College of Business securing renewal of a major independent accreditation, EQUIS, from EFMD for a further five-year period. This achievement ensures UCD College of Business remains the only business school in Ireland (and one of less than 60 worldwide) to hold the accreditation from three centres of business and academic excellence: EQUIS (Europe); AACSB (US); and AMBA (UK).

In a major vote of confidence by the European Foundation for Management Development, the accreditation review period has been retained at five years and, with this, UCD Business remains among a select few elite European business schools such as: London Business School; Saïd Business School, Oxford University; Judge School of Business, Cambridge University; INSEAD; and IMD who require review at five year intervals only.

For further information on the Financial Times rankings published today log onto www.ft.com/businesseducation

Click here to listen back to a recent interview about the rankings on RTE's Morning Ireland with Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh.