To help professionals develop their skills and expand their career opportunities, LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, has launched a list of Top 20 MBA Programs to help professionals identify the top business schools to grow their careers.
The Indian School of Business (#6) and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (#19) have been ranked among the Top 20. Stanford University, leads the global list, followed by Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD), France and Harvard University, USA, at second and third rank, respectively. The list evaluates each program on five key pillars including Job Placement, Ability to Advance, Network Strength, Leadership Potential and Gender Diversity to determine the ones that best set their alumni up for long-term career success.
Nirajita Banerjee, Senior Managing Editor and Career Expert, LinkedIn News India, said ”An MBA can be a powerful tool for professionals looking to accelerate their careers, whether they’re aiming for leadership roles, exploring new industries, or even starting their own business. Beyond earning a degree, it’s a chance to hone key in-demand soft skills like strategic thinking, leadership, and problem-solving – all while building connections that can open doors to new opportunities long after graduation. LinkedIn’s Top MBA list aims to help aspiring professionals find the right fit, making their investment truly impactful by connecting them to the programs that can best help them achieve their career goals.”
Here are the Top 20 institutions who are featured in the LinkedIn 2024 Top MBA global list:
| 1 | Stanford University |
| 2 | INSEAD |
| 3 | Harvard University |
| 4 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 6 | Indian School of Business |
| 7 | Northwestern University |
| 8 | Dartmouth College |
| 9 | Columbia University |
| 10 | University of Chicago |
| 11 | University of London |
| 12 | University of Virginia |
| 13 | Duke University |
| 14 | WHU |
| 15 | University of Oxford |
| 16 | Yale University |
| 17 | Cornell University |
| 18 | University of California, Berkeley |
| 19 | Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad |
| 20 | University of Navarra |
LinkedIn has also announced the top 10 MBA programs for network-building capabilities, with a significant presence of Indian institutions. Eight out of the top 10 globally recognized for their networking prowess are based in India. The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade leads the list at #1, followed by the Indian Institute of Management, Indore at #2, and the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow at #3), highlighting the significant role Indian institutions play in fostering valuable professional connections.
Here are the Top 10 institutions for professionals to grow their network:
| 1 | Indian Institute of Foreign Trade |
| 2 | Indian Institute of Management, Indore |
| 3 | Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow |
| 4 | Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta |
| 5 | Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad |
| 6 | Indian Institute of Management Bangalore |
| 7 | Symbiosis Institute of International Business |
| 8 | Indian School of Business |
| 9 | ESSEC Business School |
| 10 | ESCP Business School |
Methodology:
The ranking, published by LinkedIn News, is determined by a carefully weighted methodology analysing the career outcomes of millions of MBA alumni, globally. The Top MBA Programs methodology is based exclusively on LinkedIn data and five key pillars:
- Job placementtracks hiring rates and labour market demand, measuring the percentage of recent graduate cohorts from 2019-2023 who landed a full-time job within the same year of graduation, in addition to recruiter outreach across recent cohorts at each program.
- Ability to advancemeasures promotion rates among recent graduate cohorts, in addition to how quickly alumni have reached director or VP-level leadership roles.
- Network strengthmeasures network depth, or how connected alumni of the same program are to each other; network quality of recent graduate cohorts, measured by connections to director-level professionals or higher; and the network growth rate of recent cohorts since starting the program.
- Leadership potential measures the percentage of alumni with post-MBA C-Suite or entrepreneurship experiences.
- Gender Diversity measures gender parity within recent graduate cohorts.
To be eligible, MBA programs must be full-time programs and accredited by AACSB or Equis. Programs must have at least 1,500 total alumni, with at least 400 of them graduating within the recent cohort (2019-2023).
Here are tips from Nirajita on how professionals pursuing an MBA can boost their career prospects:
- Network, network, network. Meet everyone you can, attend school events, build your LinkedIn network as you go (add people as you meet them).
- Hone your key human skills – teamwork, collaboration, communication. Business school is all about the team projects, giving you a great chance to build your leadership and collaboration skills.
- Start posting on LinkedIn sharing your learnings during your course and case study exercises on any business topic you are passionate about. This can help you grow your network and build your brand.
- Think about what you might want to do post-MBA. If there’s a role you have in mind, look at the skills needed for that role and make sure you’re building those skills during the program addressing them in your studies.
- Participate in club events, pitch events and case competitions. There are great opportunities to build your presentation and persuasion skills, and performing well in these events can be a feather in your cap when applying for jobs or starting a new company.
- Look for internships, jobs, or campus leadership roles you can take on while you’re going through your program, which can help set you up for having stronger job prospects as you near graduation.
