Kellogg-HKUST has claimed the top spot in the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2026, replacing the Washington University Olin / Fudan EMBA which stumbled from first to eighth. 

CEIBS remains at two, and the sixth consecutive year in the FT top three. Then comes a climb of ten places for the Global EMBA at IESE Business School from 14th to 3rd, the highest of any European school.

The multi-campus model continues to dominate the top of the FT EMBA Ranking. CEIBS delivers its programme across China, Switzerland and Ghana, while IESE students take in Spain, the US, Germany and Brazil. 

Rising one place to fourth is France’s Skema Business School, with a cohort that travels together for residential weeks across Brazil and China as well as the UAE and the option to als spend a week in the US. And completing the top 5 is ESCP Business School with a programme where participants choose their location among France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Lebanon and the UAE.

The EMBA-Global offered jointly by London Business School and Columbia Business School returns to the 2026 ranking in seventh place, where it was two years ago. National University Singapore jumped forward 14 places to ninth, and the top 10 is rounded out with the Cambridge Judge EMBA that remained tenth.

Last year, Asia dominated the top of the 2025 FT EMBA ranking. Nine of the top eleven programmes had a campus or partnership in China, Hong Kong or SIngapore – the strongest regional performance in any of the six annual Financial Times business school rankings. Twelve months on, the picture is more balanced between Europe and Asia. 

US school presence in the top 15 – Kellogg, Columbia and WashU Olin – is reliant on joint programmes. The MIT Sloan EMBA, down seven places to 19th is the highest ranked standalone US programme, ahead of the Wharton MBA for Executives which fell seven places to 23rd.

The top 10 FT Exec MBA Ranking 2026

Only six of last year’s top 10 are still there, and just CEIBS and Cambridge Judge kept the same position as 2025.

Four programmes drop out of the top 10. Trium falls from 6th to 15th, INSEAD from 7th to 12th, Fudan’s standalone EMBA from 8th to 17th, and Arizona State’s WP Carey-SNAI from 9th to 11th.

The full FT Executive MBA Ranking 2026 is here.

IESE’s climb is mostly about pay. Its alumni salary rose from $328,494 to $431,065, and the average salary increase almost doubled from 47% to 89%. Last year’s 47% was the outlier, ranking 86th of 100 on that measure, so this is more a return to form than a breakthrough. IESE was 4th in 2024. It also now has a near 50:50 gender balance in the classroom (49% women), which the FT rewards with full marks.

The Northwestern Kellogg EMBA model

Northwestern Kellogg now has two of the world’s top six EMBAs, but neither is taught in Evanston. Its home programme comes in at 27th. Kellogg started its Executive MBA in 1976. Since then it has built a global network of partner programmes: Hong Kong with HKUST (1998), Toronto with York University’s Schulich School (2002), Germany with WHU Beisheim, and Beijing with Peking University’s Guanghua School. 

All five programmes are in this year’s FT table.

The same faculty, curriculum and brand produce results anywhere from 1st to 53rd. The main reason is where the alumni work and what they earn. The FT converts salaries using purchasing power parity (PPP), which makes Hong Kong and Beijing salaries look much bigger. Salary today and salary increase together carry 31% of the weight, so the two Asian partnerships start with a large lead.

Pay is not the whole story, though. Kellogg-HKUST actually reported lower salaries than last year: salary today fell from $647,850 to $607,684 and salary increase from 96% to 69%. It won the top spot on everything else. Career progress jumped from 38th to 2nd, international students rose from 60% to 93%, and its alumni rated the network 1st for the second year in a row.

Guanghua-Kellogg went the other way, with salary today up from $492,006 to $588,889. It is also the only Kellogg programme with more women than men (55%).

Kellogg-WHU gains eight places to 34th for the network in Europe. Its alumni reported a higher salary increase (54%, up from 45%), more of them felt they had achieved their aims (69%, up from 64%), and career progress improved from 66th to 41st.

Kellogg-Schulich is the one that crashed, falling from 32nd to 53rd. Salaries were actually up slightly, so the fall comes from two other factors. The share of women in the class dropped from 49% to 29%, which loses most of a gender score that rewards 50:50. Career progress also collapsed from 31st to 82nd. A one-year swing like that usually reflects a very different cohort answered the survey, so it is worth watching whether Toronto recovers next year.

The domestic Evanston programme moves up three places, from 30th to 27th. On salary today it beats WHU and Schulich comfortably, and its FT research rank of 10th is the strongest in the Kellogg network. But with only 31% international students and international course experience ranked 60th, it scores poorly on the measures where the partnerships do well. 

That pattern holds across the table. US Executive MBA programmes that typically attract students from the surrounding area rarely post strong international student numbers, let alone an international course experience or international board.

Mainland China slips, Hong Kong and Singapore climb

Last year the most successful China EMBA partnerships came from the mainland. This year, Hong Kong and Singapore take their place.

The Shanghai partnerships took the biggest hit. WashU-Fudan alumni still report the highest salary in the ranking, at $649,429. But that is down from $718,662, and the salary increase fell from 134% to 105%. When nearly a third of the ranking depends on pay, a dip like that costs places fast. UCLA-NUS, 11th last year, is missing from the table altogether.

NUS gives Singapore its big result. Its standalone EMBA rises 14 places to 9th, as salary today jumped from $372,278 to $542,224. That is a 46% rise in a year, the largest in the top 25, ahead of even IESE. A swing that big is worth watching to see if it holds.

But the FT Exec MBA Ranking is still the Financial Times business school table where Asia shines

A volatile top 25 in 2026

Of this year’s top 25, 12 programmes moved five or more places, and two returned after a year away. The average move was almost six places. For a ranking built on three years of alumni data, that is a lot of movement.

The returners are EMBA-Global Columbia/LBS (7th) and IE Business School’s Global EMBA (13th equal). Both programmes were in the top 20 in 2024, so a missing year says more about participation than performance. Dropping out of the top 25 are BI-Fudan (31st), Kedge-SJTU (30th) and St Gallen (29th).

Neoma Business School’s Global EMBA is the climb that stands out. It has gone from 46th in 2024 to 38th last year and 25th in 2026. Most of the gain comes from salary increase, which rose from 39% to 59%. More alumni also said they had achieved their aims (73%, up from 68%), and work experience rose from 30th to 14th. Neoma is also 6th for ESG teaching. Its Global EMBA, taught in France and China, is a good example of a French school using an Asian partnership to compete in a ranking that rewards both pay and international reach.

The fallers include three of the best-known names in business education. MIT Sloan, LBS and Wharton each drop seven places. All three remain top 25 programmes, ahead of Yale SOM and Cornell Johnson, with Columbia’s EMBA New York entering ay 37th.

Biggest climbers and fallers, and new entrants

The biggest climbers outside the top 25 are Duke Fuqua (75th to 49th) and Iscte Business School in Lisbon (81st to 55th), both up 26 places. Rennes (89th to 68th), Aalto (92nd to 72nd), Cornell Johnson (50th to 33rd) and Porto Business School (95th to 82nd) also make big gains.

The biggest falls are Copenhagen Business School down 28 places (59th to 87th), UC Irvine Merage (67th to 91st equal), Sabanci (48th to 70th), Incae (60th to 81st) and Kellogg-Schulich (32nd to 53rd). 

Of the seventeen EMBA programmes not in the 2025 ranking, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals enters for the first time at 79th, with strong career progress and high overall student satisfaction, but only 4% female faculty and the only school with no women on the board.

How the FT EMBA ranking works

The FT ranks 100 programmes on 17 criteria. Alumni surveys supply 52% of the weight, with data drawn from graduates of the past three years, including the class of 2023. School data accounts for most of the rest, along with 10% for the FT’s own count of faculty research.

Three things explain most of this year’s volatility. First, pay dominates, and it is measured in PPP dollars. Small changes in reported salary or in PPP rates can move a programme several places. Second, the gender measures reward a 50:50 split, so a class that swings from 49% women to 29%, as at Kellogg-Schulich, loses most of its score. Third, alumni answers can change a lot from one class to the next, especially for programmes with small cohorts.

This means a single year’s move should be read alongside multi-year performance. On that measure the Global EMBA at INSEAD, Trium (HEC/LSE/NYU Stern) and Arizona WP Carey are among the schools whose three-year average makes the top 10.

Top five EMBA programmes by FT ranking criteria in 2026

Salary today (US$ PPP)

Salary increase

Career progress

Aims achieved

Alumni network

FT research

ESG and net zero teaching

Carbon footprint

International course experience

Source: Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2026 and 2025. Salaries are average alumni salaries three years after graduating, converted to US dollars at purchasing power parity.

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