Masters in Finance 2021 rankings: methodology and key

This is the 10th edition of the FT Global Masters in Finance rankings, which list both pre-experience programmes and post-experience degrees.

The FT defines pre-experience programmes as those aimed at students with little or no professional experience, while post-experience programmes require participants to have worked in finance. Most full-time programmes are aimed at pre-experience students.

Programmes must meet strict criteria to be eligible. They must be full-time, cohort-based and have a minimum of 30 graduates each year. Finally, the schools must be accredited by either AACSB or Equis.

A total of 79 schools took part in the 2021 edition of these rankings, 77 in the pre-experience ranking and five in the post-experience listing. Three schools, Amsterdam Business School, London Business School and Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian, took part in both.

FT Masters in Finance rankings 2021

Find out which schools are in our ranking of post-experience and pre-experience postgraduate finance programmes. Also, learn how the tables were compiled and read the rest of our coverage.

The rankings are based on information collected in two separate surveys. The first is of the business schools and the second of alumni who completed their degrees in 2018.

For a school to be eligible for the rankings, at least 20 per cent of its alumni must respond to the FT survey, with a minimum of 20 completed surveys. Due to the pandemic, the FT considered schools with a lower response rate. In total it surveyed 6,178 graduates from pre-experience programmes and 314 alumni from post-experience courses. The two surveys achieved a response rate of 36 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.

There are 17 different categories in the pre-experience ranking, and alumni responses inform seven categories that together constitute 58 per cent of the total weight. The other 10 categories are calculated from the school data and account for the remaining 42 per cent.

The post-experience table has 16 categories, and alumni responses inform seven criteria that make up 62 per cent of the total weight. The remaining nine categories are taken from the school data and account for 38 per cent.

In both rankings, the current average salary of alumni has the highest weighting: 20 per cent. Local salaries are converted to US dollars using purchasing power parity rates supplied by the International Monetary Fund. The salaries of non-profit and public service workers, and full-time students, are removed. Salaries are normalised by removing the highest and lowest salaries reported.

The pre-experience ranking measures average salary increase between the first post-masters job on graduation and today — a timespan of about three years. The post-experience ranking calculates the average salary difference from before starting the masters to now — a timespan of about four years. Salary increase has a respective weight of 10 per cent and 20 per cent in each ranking. Half of this figure is calculated according to the absolute increase and half according to the relative percentage increase (the figure published in the table).

Data provided by schools are used to measure the diversity of teaching staff, board members and students by gender and citizenship, plus the international reach of the programme. For gender criteria, schools with a 50:50 (male:female) composition receive the highest score. When calculating international diversity, in addition to schools’ percentage of international students and faculty — the figures published — the FT also considers the proportion of international students from each country of citizenship.

For the post-experience rankings, however, the calculations of value for money differ in that the total cost of the degree also includes the opportunity cost — the cost of not working during the programme.

The FT did not publish the Masters in Finance rankings in 2019. All alumni criteria use information collected from 2021 and, if available, 2020. Responses from 2021 carry 60 per cent of the total weight and those from 2020 account for 40 per cent, except for salary data which is 50 per cent for each year.

Finally, a relative FT score is calculated for each school. First, Z-scores — formulas that reflect the range of scores between the top and bottom schools — are calculated for each ranking criterion. These scores are then weighted, according to the weights outlined in the key to the ranking, and added together to give a final score. Schools are ranked accordingly, creating the FT Masters in Finance rankings.

Judith Pizer of Pizer-MacMillan acted as the FT’s database consultant