Forbes Names UT One of Best Values in Business Education

By David Wenger in Promote & Protect, Special on August 3, 2011 at 3:04 pm | 1 Comment

One of the bedrocks of business school rankings is the yearly Forbes Magazine list of top MBA programs. The ranking has been a favorite among UT students and alums as McCombs School of Business always shows well—no. 17 in the nation in 2011 results released today.

The Forbes ranking measures best return on investment, a factor of both cost (including tuition, fees, and forgone salary) and how much graduates are earning five years after graduation. Think of it as a measure of the value received: did the resulting salary compare well to the educational investment made?

UT has ranked as high as no. 11 in the Forbes list and is always near the top. In short, UT business students get one of the best educational values available, not only in Texas but in the world.

Graduate education isn’t the only spot where UT shines. Among the undergraduate schools that rank in the top 20 in both Bloomberg BusinessWeek (BBW) and U.S. News and World Report, here is how McCombs compares:

• No. 3 highest return on investment (best value)

• No. 4 cheapest tuition among elite programs

• One of largest business schools in the world, with 4,318 undergraduates

Little wonder the UT business school receives approximately 6,000 applications for every freshman class of around 800 students.

Two additional points make this relevant to the current public discussion on academic priorities at the university.

First, a business degree from UT is known and respected around the world, representing academic excellence in both research and teaching. The business school faculty at McCombs is ranked no. 11 most productive research faculty in the world. BBW ranks McCombs no. 17 in intellectual capital, and the Financial Times ranks McCombs no. 22 in faculty research in the world.

Second, student satisfaction continues to be high, with BBW measuring McCombs at no. 10 in the nation for student satisfaction, with teaching ratings of either A or A+ every year. Princeton Review rates UT no. 3 out of 300 business schools for best professors, with high marks for overall academic experience.

At the conclusion of a recent audit visit, Jerry Trapnell, vice president of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business said, in renewing the business school’s accreditation, “[Accredited] schools not only must meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty and staff must make a commitment to ongoing improvement to ensure continued delivery of high-quality education to students.”

As seen here, research, teaching, educational value, and outcomes are being successfully balanced at the University, and the process of continuing improvement is already a well-established principle of operation. As measured by Forbes and many other observers, UT business students are clearly wise consumers.

David Wenger is the director of communications at the McCombs School of Business. File photo by Val Cook.

Tags: business, forbes, mccombs ranking, mccombs school