Reassessing University and Business School Rankings: A Focus on Entrepreneurship

Abstract: In the dynamic realm of higher education, university, and business school rankings have become influential benchmarks for institutions and aspiring students alike. Rankings have become a focal point for users, influencing the decisions and perspectives of students, employers, and more. Popular rankings such as the Financial Times' Business School Rankings and QS' World University rankings hold a prominent place, offering valuable insights into program quality, faculty expertise, and graduate outcomes. However, this thesis explores what such rankings fail to capture. While traditional metrics assess employment statistics and program attributes, they often fail to account for additional topics of interest, such as entrepreneurship. Given the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development, innovation, job creation, and societal well-being, we hypothesize that business educators should be assessed on their ability to develop talented founders. Thus we create our own "Alumni Entrepreneurship Ranking" in which we gather fresh insights into those institutions who are best at developing entrepreneurial talent. Our analysis also enables us to compare and contrast this ranking to popular incumbent rankings, while highlighting their limitations. By doing so, we aspire to initiate a discourse that adds to the evaluation of business education providers, and to build on the current assessments of institutions.