CUHK Business School Named One of the Top 10 Business Schools for MBA Students

FIND MBA, a German-based online media outlet for prospective MBA candidates, has recently updated its shortlists of top business schools by location, industry focus and functional area. Created by FIND MBA’s editors, these Top 10 Lists provide future MBA students with information on employment data, concentrations and other factors so they can find the best business schools for different careers in various industries and job functions.

To date, a total of 22 lists have been published, including the Top 10 Lists for Financial Services, Supply Chain, Sustainability and others. The lists have been updated recently to reflect changes in employment data and in the overall business school landscape. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is featured in five of these Top 10 Lists this year. It is among the 106 business schools listed in FIND MBA’s “Top 10 Lists by Specialisation” for 2017.

CUHK Business School is ranked one of the Top 10 business schools in the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan). In the 1990s, the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan) came to international attention through the exponential growth of their economies. The growth led to the development of a handful of world-class business schools in the region. Today, the best ones have received international recognitions through accreditation and rankings. But for the Top 10 business schools in the region, including CUHK Business School, success is more than just leveraging the dynamic growth of their surroundings. These top schools have developed depth and breadth in their education scope through partnerships with prospective employers in the workplace and business schools worldwide, from mainland China to the United States.

Commenting on CUHK Business School, FIND MBA says that the school “leverages its connections with mainland China to help graduates land jobs there and throughout Asia. Its EMBA program is ranked by the Financial Times. The School is also listed as a top school for a career in Retail and Consumer Goods, Finance, Private Equity and Strategy.”

CUHK Business School Ranks Top in Four Specialisation Categories
Regarding the Top 10 Lists by industry focus or functional area, CUHK Business School is ranked the world’s Top 2 business school for Strategy/Business Development and among the Top 10 for Private Equity, Retail and Consumer Goods and Finance/Financial Services.

Regarding the School’s ranking as the Top 2 business school for Strategy/Business Development, FIND MBA notes that 22 percent of the graduates from CUHK MBA’s Class of 2015 went into either business development or sales and marketing roles. It says that although the School does not offer a specialisation in strategy or business development, its core curriculum addresses a wide range of strategic management issues.

FIND MBA adds that from meeting organizational objectives to carrying out individual projects, managers need to think strategically at all levels. MBA programs usually include strategy classes in their core curriculums, and some offer specializations in strategy or strategic management. MBA graduates can find strategy jobs in specific industries or can work as strategy or business development consultants.

In addition, the School has also been listed on the Top 10 Lists for Private Equity, Retail and Consumer Goods as well as Finance/Financial Services. Please see FIND MBA’s comments below:

Private Equity
Thirteen percent of the students in CUHK MBA’s Finance concentration went into private equity or venture capital–the highest of any schools in Asia that the media has surveyed. This puts the School in the Top 10 position for Private Equity worldwide. Not many schools’ MBA programs offer concentrations in private equity, but a school that is strong in finance is typically strong in private equity. Private equity is a subset of finance and usually refers to private investors who invest in private companies. Closely related to private equity are venture capital and leveraged buyouts, where investors fund new businesses or acquire stakes in existing companies, respectively.

Retail and Consumer Goods
Retail and consumer goods are huge businesses. By some estimates, the size of the global retail industry was over US$22 trillion in 2015, driven by behemoths like Walmart, Home Depot and Costco, as well as by e-commerce retailers such as Amazon. MBA programs do not often offer specialised curriculum in these industries; instead, students can opt for relevant functional concentrations like operations management or marketing, and find networking opportunities through research centers and student clubs.

Although many of CUHK’s graduates are drawn to lucrative careers in finance, a growing number are finding themselves drawn to the consumer products field due to the region’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) infrastructure and the fact that the School has a robust program in this field. It has been ranked FIND MBA’s Top 3 business school for Retail and Consumer Goods globally.

Finance/Financial Services
As many as 44 percent of CUHK Business School’s MBA Class of 2015 were placed into the finance industry (including banking, venture capital and private equity), making this one of the highest rates among all the schools surveyed by FIND MBA. The School’s MBA concentration in Finance prepares its students for excelling in finance roles in Hong Kong and the broader Asia Pacific money markets.

Please click here to find out more about the Top 10 Lists and read about the methodology here.