Rutgers ranks as No. 1 public business school in Northeast
The Financial Times recently released a comprehensive ranking of business schools for 2018, placing Rutgers Business School as 24th among all business schools in the country and No. 1 among all public business schools in the Northeast region, according to the PR Newswire.
Compared to other universities in the Big Ten conference, Rutgers tied with the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.
The ranking was based on each university's performance in other categories, including open enrollment and customized program rankings, full-time global MBA ranking and executive MBA ranking. The purpose of the report from The Financial Times was to focus on how schools are adapting to the changing market of how business is taught.
"There are success stories in business education in the Americas, despite the difficult U.S. market for full-time two-year MBA programs. The winners are those that follow the business rule that it always helps to be alert to changes in a market and adapt to the inevitable shifts in consumer tastes," according to the Financial Times.
The new ranking reinforces how "public business schools have an immense impact on the future workforce," said Lei Lei, the dean of Rutgers Business School. Enrollment statistics from the 2016 National Center for Education Statistics reveal that public universities educate their students 20 times more than Ivy League schools.
"We are working hard to stay ahead of the trends in business education," Lei said. "From our focus on constantly innovating our curriculum with the help of alumni and corporate partners in our executive MBA and full-time MBA programs to our efforts to extend the currency of a Rutgers Business School degree with lifelong learning opportunities through our executive education programs, we are a partner with our students and alumni their entire lives."
The executive MBA program at the University also ranked second in economics, third in corporate strategy, third in statistics and tenth in manufacturing and logistics globally. Overall, the program ranked 22nd in the United States and 89th in the world, according to the Financial Times.
Farrokh Langdana, director of the Rutgers Executive MBA program, said the format of the program made it very demanding for any student pursuing an MBA. He said students in the program not only take four or five courses a semester, but also take on the additional responsibilities of working full-time, traveling and other family obligations.
"Against this backdrop, the Rutgers EMBA program is designed to ensure maximum 'value added' in terms of the applicability of the curriculum and the timeliness of the cases and topics," he said.
The Rutgers full-time MBA program also was ranked No. 1 for MBA job placement in the Northeast by Bloomberg in 2016 and No. 1 in the overall country in 2017.
"Our location in the New York metropolitan area with close proximity to the world's leading corporations has allowed us to build unique relationships with many companies," said Sharon Lydon, the director of Rutgers MBA program. "We consult with them to keep our curriculum relevant, many C-Suite leaders give guest lectures, and our alumni are keen to network with our students," she said.
Rutgers Business School also is working to make sure its students' careers maintain relevance.
Peter Methot, director of Rutgers Business School Executive Education, said the school is moving past the mindset that students stop learning after graduation, and believes that an executive education provides a shorter, but more formal learning opportunity for students to hone their skills and capabilities through their entire career.
"Executive education units embedded within business schools are perfectly aligned as the integrators of research and application to meet the needs of transitioning professionals throughout their careers," he said.
