UCD's Smurfit business school has jumped up the global rankings

UCD’S MICHAEL SMURFIT Graduate Business school has risen nine places on a leader board that ranks the world’s top business colleges.

The annual Global MBA Ranking, compiled by the Financial Times, placed the Blackrock business school as the 70th best business college worldwide – the only Irish institution to make the top 100.

In recent years, Irish universities have performed poorly in the overall university rankings, with none featuring in the top 200 of the Times Higher Education World University leader board in 2016.

Speaking about the new rankings, UCD College of Business dean Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said the school needs “significant ongoing investment” to build on this achievement.

He added that the school has plans to invest €65 million of non-exchequer funding over the next five years to help the college maintain and build upon its position in the rankings.

Some of the criteria the college was judged on included career progress of alumni, employment success, faculty research capabilities and diversity.

Here are some insights from FT’s analysis:

• Graduates from Smurfit’s MBA programme saw their salaries increase by 71% on average within three years of completing the course
• UCD Smurfit’s full-time MBA programme was also placed in the top 10 in Europe for value for money – and 16th globally
• The Smurfit MBA ranked in the top 50 for female faculty representation (39th) and female student participation (44th).

UCD's Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

Development plans

The commitment to invest €65 million into the business school was announced last year as part of an overall target to break into the top 50 global business schools by 2020.

This funding will be earmarked for an expansion of its faculty, the development of new buildings and the creation of new scholarship programmes to attract “the very best students from Ireland and overseas”.

Two sectors the college will look to tap into include financial services and digital business where Ó hÓgartaigh said there is “significant scope to carve out leadership positions”.

Fewer than 50 colleges, including UCD Smurfit School, have made the top 100 business school list for 18 consecutive years.

Last year, the school also received notable recognition for its full-time business courses in the FT Global Masters in Management (MiM) report.

As part of analysis for the MiM report, the MSc in International Management programme was ranked as the 22nd best course of its type in the world, while its MSc in Finance ranked 34th.