FT Executive Education Ranking 2025: methodology and key

This is the 26th edition of the Financial Times rankings of the world’s leading providers of customised and open-enrolment executive education programmes.

The custom programme ranking features the top 95 business schools. Custom courses are tailored to the training needs of the organisations that commission them.

The second ranking includes the top 85 schools offering open-enrolment courses — those on specific topics, such as leadership, directed towards professionals regardless of their employer.

FT 2025 Executive Education Ranking

Read the rankings of custom and open-enrolment programmes

Participating schools/universities must be accredited by either AACSB or Equis, or have an affiliation with an AACSB/Equis accredited school within their university. They must also have earned revenues of at least $1mn in 2024 from either custom or open-enrolment non-degree programmes in order to participate in the relevant ranking. This year, a total of 119 schools took part in either or both tables.

Custom programme ranking

The ranking of customised course providers is compiled using data from the business schools and their clients in 2024. Each school must have a minimum of 10 clients who have commissioned programmes from them. At least five clients per school must complete the FT survey for a course provider to be eligible for the final ranking.

We received 1000 completed client surveys this year — a response rate of about 34 per cent. A minority of clients completed the survey more than once in cases where they had commissioned more than one programme from different schools.

Each client rated their programme on a 10-point scale according to a range of indicators. Their answers are used to calculate the first nine ranking criteria — from “preparation’ to “future use”. In total, client responses account for 80 per cent of the table weight.

Responses are weighted according to the seniority of the individual responsible for specifying the course, the size of the client organisation and the number of schools with which that client has commissioned customised courses in the past three years.

The last five criteria are calculated from information provided by schools on international clients, overseas programmes, growth, partner schools and faculty diversity.

Open-enrolment programme ranking

The open-enrolment ranking is compiled using data from course providers and individuals who completed their nominated management programmes in 2024. Schools submit one or two general courses of at least three days in length and one or two advanced courses lasting a minimum of five days. At least 20 per cent of these programmes’ participants must complete the FT survey, with a minimum of 20 completed surveys, for a school to be considered in the ranking.

This year’s open programme survey was completed by 4,891 participants, — a response rate of about 35 per cent — rating elements of their course on a 10-point scale. A minority of those responded to the survey more than once in cases where they completed more than one programme. Responses by advanced and general-level participants are combined to calculate the first eight ranking criteria.

These criteria, which include the quality of the participants, teaching and relevance of the skills they gained, inform 80 per cent of the ranking. School data is used to calculate the remaining criteria on female and international participants, growth, international location, partner schools and faculty diversity.

Weighting
For each table, information collected in the preceding two years is used, if available, to calculate criteria informed by client and participant responses (depending on the ranking). If a school has participated for the past three years, the weighting is 40:33:27, with 40 per cent for 2025, 33 per cent for 2024 and 27 per cent for 2023. If only two years of data are available, the weighting is split 55:45 for 2025 and 2024 respectively, or 60:40 for 2025 and 2023 respectively.

The weightings accorded to the first eight criteria in the customised and open rankings are determined by the level of importance clients and participants attach to each in their surveys for the 2025 ranking. Weightings for these criteria therefore vary slightly from year to year, although “future use”, the ninth criterion in the custom ranking, is always set at eight per cent.

Judith Pizer of Pizer-MacMillan and Avner Cohen of AC Data Science acted as the FT’s database consultants.

Rankings key

Custom programme key

(Weights for ranking criteria in brackets as a percentage of overall ranking)

The first nine criteria, including “future use”, are based on data from companies and organisations that commissioned executive courses. The next five are based on data from business schools. Schools are ranked for each of these criteria. The last categories, “total responses” and “overall satisfaction”, are for information only and are not used in the ranking calculation. Figures in brackets below show the weight each criterion contributes to the overall ranking.

Client responses account for 80 per cent of the table weight. The weighting accorded to the first eight criteria, from “preparation” to “value for money”, accounts for 72 per cent of the table’s weight, determined by the level of importance that clients attach to each category. Future use is set at eight per cent.

Preparation (9.2): level of interaction between client and school, the extent to which clients’ ideas were integrated into the programme and the effectiveness of the school in incorporating its latest research into teaching.

Programme design (9.2): flexibility of the course and willingness of schools to complement their faculty with external experts.

Teaching methods and materials (9.1): extent to which teaching methods and materials were contemporary and appropriate, and included a suitable mix of academic rigour and practical relevance.

Faculty (9.2): quality of teaching and the extent to which teaching staff worked together to present a coherent programme.

New skills and learning (9.3): relevance of skills gained to the workplace, the ease with which they were implemented and the extent to which the course encouraged new ways of thinking.

Follow-up (7.8): extent and effectiveness of follow-up offered after course participants returned to their workplace.

Aims achieved (9.4): extent to which academic and business expectations were met and the quality of feedback from individual participants to course commissioners.

Value for money (8.8): clients’ rating of the value for money of the programme’s design, teaching and materials.

Future use (8.0): likelihood that clients would reuse the same school for other customised programmes in the future and whether they would recommission the same programme.

International clients (5.0): based on the percentage of clients with headquarters outside the business school’s base country and region.

Overseas programmes (2.0): international reach of the school’s customised programme teaching.

Growth (5.0): based on the overall growth in revenues from customised programmes as well as growth in revenues from repeat business.

Partner schools (3.0): quantity and quality of programmes developed or taught in conjunction with other Equis- or AACSB-accredited business schools.

Faculty diversity (5.0): diversity of school faculty according to citizenship and gender.

Total responses ‡: number of individual surveys completed by the school’s clients. Figures in brackets indicate the number of years of survey data counted towards the ranking. The first figure refers to the number of individual surveys completed by clients of the business school. The figure in brackets indicates the total number of years of survey data included in this ranking. Data are retained for those schools that participated in the last two rankings but were not ranked in either or both.

Overall satisfaction *: average evaluation by clients of the course, surveyed this year, scored out of 10. After clients answered various questions about their course experience, they were asked to rate their overall satisfaction, on a 10-point scale. This figure is not used in the ranking.

Open-enrolment programme key

(Weights for ranking criteria in brackets as a percentage of overall ranking)

The first eight criteria are based on data from programme participants; the next six are based on data submitted by the business schools. Figures in brackets show the weight each criterion contributes to the overall ranking. The weighting accorded to the first eight criteria, from preparation to aims achieved, accounts for 80 per cent of the total ranking’s weight. It is determined by the level of importance that participants attach to each category.

Preparation (9.4): provision of advance information on programme content and the participant selection process.

Course design (10.4): flexibility of the course and appropriateness of class size, structure and design.

Teaching methods and materials (10.1): extent to which teaching methods and materials were contemporary and appropriate, and included a suitable mix of academic rigour and practical relevance.

Faculty (10.5): quality of teaching and the extent to which teaching staff worked together to present a coherent programme.

Quality of participants (9.7): the extent to which other programme participants were of the appropriate managerial and academic standard, the international diversity of participants and the quality of interaction among peers.

New skills and learning (10.5): relevance of skills gained to the workplace, the ease with which they were implemented, and the extent to which the course encouraged new ways of thinking.

Follow-up (9.1): level of follow-up offered after participants returned to their workplace, and networking opportunities with fellow participants.

Aims achieved (10.3): extent to which personal and professional expectations were met, and the likelihood that participants would recommend the programme.

Female participants (2.0): percentage of female course participants. Schools with a 50:50 (male/female) composition receive the highest score.

International participants (3.0): based on the percentage of participants from outside the business school’s base country and region.

International location (2.0): extent to which programmes are run outside the school’s base country and region.

Growth (5.0): based on the overall growth in revenues from open programmes, as well as the growth in revenues from repeat business.

Partner schools (3.0): quantity and quality of programmes taught in conjunction with other Equis- or AACSB-accredited business schools.

Faculty diversity (5.0): diversity of school faculty according to citizenship and gender.

Overall satisfaction *: average evaluation by participants of the course, surveyed this year, scored out of 10. After participants answered questions about aspects of their course experience, they were asked to rate their overall satisfaction, on a 10-point scale. This figure is not used in the ranking.

Footnotes

In the Open table, all categories show rank numbers except “Female participants (%)”, which shows the percentage.

Custom ranking entry criteria

Updated on May 13, 2025

Custom ranking entry criteria

We define customised executive education as short general management or specialist non-degree business education training courses for employees of private companies (eg finance or industrial corporations) or organisations (eg, NGOs, national government departments or charities).

Typically, custom programmes are commissioned by a senior manager in view to address specific training needs and all participants would be employed by the same (or group of) company/organisation/government body.

Classes delivered to full-time or part-time students in other degree programmes (such as visiting EMBA students) do not count as customised executive education.

Note

We survey synchronous courses, with live teaching, that were taught:

- fully online

- in person

- online and in person, ie, hybrid

We do not survey courses that are 100 per cent self-taught, for example, courses where students are teaching themselves by watching recorded lectures and there is no real-time student and teacher interaction. This is because our survey assesses teaching quality.

Schools must meet the following criteria to be eligible.

1. Be either AACSB or Equis accredited or have an affiliation with an AACSB/Equis accredited school within your university.

2. Have had an income (revenues) of US$1m or more in all non-degree customised programmes, including joint courses, between January 1 and December 31 in the year preceding the ranking publication year.

Please count your revenue based on programmes that were taught, or completed, in the specified calendar year only, eg, 2024, even if they were not paid for in that year. For example, a course that was taught or completed in 2024 was paid for in 2023.

3. Your school will need at least 10 clients from 10 separate private companies/public organisations that commissioned a customised programme that was completed between January 1 and December 31 in the year preceding the ranking publication year. This is to ensure that we survey a broad and representative sample of your clients. They will be asked to complete an online survey. Please exclude clients who have commissioned joint programmes and courses with under 70 per cent synchronous (real-time) teaching hours.

4. The surveyed programmes, from the above clients (in point 3), must be from three days to six months in length.

A day’s worth of teaching is equivalent to five hours of teaching.

Programmes must have been completed in the past year (but the commissioning and design process could have happened up to three years ago, for example).

Meeting these criteria does not guarantee automatic participation in the ranking. The final decision rests with the Financial Times.

Additional notes

Schools that have multiple custom programmes with a single company/organisation may include these additional programmes for the survey, as long as they are IN ADDITION to the initial 10 programmes from 10 separate companies/organisations.

If multiple programmes for a single company/organisation are submitted, they should be rated by different employees from different parts of the company/organisation.
An individual client, not multiple clients, from one organisation/company can only complete one survey for one school.
A client that has commissioned multiple programmes from multiple schools is able to complete a survey for each of these schools.

For a school to be considered for the ranking, we require a minimum of five completed surveys from clients.

Online questionnaires are available in these languages ONLY: English, French and Spanish.

Please note, the table is finalised about eight weeks before the publication date. It is too late for schools to withdraw from the ranking after the eight-week mark.

Email executive@ft.com by the start of November if you have questions or wish to take part as the ranking process starts in early December. By this time, the onus is on schools to get in contact with us if they wish to take part in the ranking, as we are unable to email every single school to check if they wish to be considered.

Rankings: https://rankings.ft.com/home/executive-education

Report: https://www.ft.com/executive-education

Methodology: https://www.ft.com/executive-method

Timings

Invitation to participate: December

Schools to confirm participation: January

Schools to upload client list: January

Survey open: January/February

Survey close: March

Data checks with schools: March - April

Publication: May

Open ranking entry criteria

We define open executive education as short non-degree business courses for junior/senior managers or entrepreneurs. Enrolment is open to all eligible individuals and participants are typically employed by different companies and organisations.

These courses must not count towards a degree.

Note

We survey synchronous courses, with live teaching, that were taught:

- fully online

- in person

- online and in person, ie, hybrid

Short business classes delivered to private individuals in non-managerial roles do not count as open executive education. We survey those who have completed:

Advanced management programmes: AMPs are for senior leaders who want to increase their responsibilities or move into more senior positions, such as C-suite roles.

General management programmes: GMPs are for functional/ specialist managers, eg, marketing experts looking to expand their management and leadership skills.

Schools must meet the following criteria to be eligible.

1. Be either AACSB or Equis accredited or have an affiliation with an AACSB/Equis accredited organisation.

2. Have had an income (revenues) of US$1m or more in all non-degree open enrolment programmes, including joint courses, between January 1 and December 31 in the year preceding the ranking publication year.

Please count your revenue based on programmes that were taught, or completed, in the specified calendar year only, eg, 2024, even if they were not paid for in that year. For example, a course that was taught or completed in 2024 was paid for in 2023.

3. Each school must submit one or two general management programmes with a minimum of 30 participants between them (total of 30 participants) who have completed the programmes in the year preceding the ranking publication year. These mid-level programmes should be GMPs or equivalent and be at least three days long, with a minimum of 15 hours of teaching. Do not include any functional programmes, which are specialist courses such as marketing and accounting.

4. Each school must also submit one or two advanced management programmes with a minimum of 30 participants between them (total of 30 participants) who have completed the programmes in the year preceding the ranking publication year. The senior programmes should be AMPs or equivalent and be at least four days long, with a minimum of 20 hours of teaching.

5. This means that your participant list should contain at least 60 names to be surveyed. However, we are aware some participants want to opt out of our survey, therefore your list can contain under 60 names. Ideally, business schools should be able to supply the email addresses of all the above participants. These will be used purely for editorial research purposes and held securely and destroyed after use, unless they agree for us to contact them again for future research, respecting GDPR and the FT rankings privacy policy: https://bschoolportal.ft.com/privacy-policy. Please exclude those who want to opt out of our survey. Please do not select and lobby participants to complete the survey.

6. Please exclude joint programmes when submitting your list of participants, from points 3 and 4 above, and exclude programmes with under 70 per cent synchronous (real-time) teaching hours.

A day’s worth of teaching is equivalent to five hours of teaching.

Meeting these criteria does not guarantee automatic participation in the ranking. The final decision rests with the Financial Times.

We need a response rate of at least 20 per cent from course attendees with a minimum of 20 completed surveys from any school wishing to be considered for the ranking. Eg, a class size of 100 attendees will require 20 completed surveys and a class size of 200 attendees will require 40 completed surveys.

This response rate is based on the total size of the cohort we are surveying, not the number of participant emails you will be able to supply, as we are aware that some will opt out of the survey. The response rate is based on the combined number of participants from both AMPs and GMPs. Eg, we are not asking for at least 20/20 per cent completed surveys each for AMPs and GMPs.

Please exclude from the survey list any participants employed by the school/ parent university.

Online questionnaires are available in these languages ONLY: English, French and Spanish.

Please note, the table is finalised about eight weeks before the publication date. It is too late for schools to withdraw from the ranking after the eight-week mark.

Rankings: https://rankings.ft.com/home/executive-education

Report: https://www.ft.com/executive-education

Methodology: https://www.ft.com/executive-method

Timings

Invitation to participate: December

Schools to confirm participation: January

Schools to upload course attendee list: January

Survey open: January/February

Survey close: March

FT conducts data checking process with schools: March — April

Publication: May