When do you stop being a good or bad student? Maybe never. Higher education establishments, the very ones that distribute grades to millions of students, also run after congratulations. In their case, good points are not awarded by professors, but by ranking organizations – most often the media.
Business schools seem particularly hung up on the verdicts of this academic capitalism. Thus, in the days preceding the publication of its ranking of major business schools, The Student becomes a complaints office. Dissatisfied with their result, obtained under embargo, several directors expressed their dismay: some were on the verge of tears, others threatened to drop out of the ranking. “We get a lot of calls about this. Schools want to glean information. They don’t like losing places, it makes waves”confirms Kira Mitrofanoff, responsible for rankings for the magazine Challenges.
Conversely, when the news is good, ” THE business schools bring out the champagne »assure Leo Cremonezi, rankings editor (“ranking manager”) for the Financial Times (FT), the most prescriptive daily on the subject and the most influential in this small ecosystem. ” THE rankingsit's free marketing, and the market is very competitive in France »specifies the statistician.
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Every year, the British newspaper publishes its ranking of the best masters in management in the world. In 2024, six French schools – HEC, Insead, Edhec, ESCP, EM Lyon, Essec – appear in the top 10. Andrew Jack, education editor-in-chief of FTs'en amuse : “France, quite a paradox! This is a country with a leftist and anti-capitalist reputation, yet one of the best business schools in the world. » They return the compliment. « The FT is to business schools what Shanghai is to universities: a world reference, and an exceptional showcase”summarizes Léon Laulusa, general director of ESCP.
“An exceptional marketing tool”
At the ESCP, three statisticians are responsible for collecting the data and answering the questions for the different classifications, explains Léon Laulusa: “Each school has a team dedicated to rankings. » Especially since the rankings, which emerged in the 1980s with a national approach, gained momentum with the Bologna process, which advocates the harmonization of the different European higher education systems.
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