US-China Partnership Tops 2025 Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking

For the second consecutive year, the world’s best Executive MBA (EMBA) program can be found in Shanghai, according to the Financial Times, though there’s a new program leading its 2025 EMBA ranking. 

The WashU-Fudan EMBA, offered jointly through a partnership between Washington University Olin Business School and Fudan University School of Management—business schools hailing from the US and China, the world’s two largest economies—supplants the CEIBS Global EMBA which topped the ranking for the first time in 2024. The WashU-Fudan EMBA, which is taught primarily in Shanghai with an additional residential period in the US, was unranked from 2022 until 2024, when it placed third. 

Consistent with previous years, the 2025 FT EMBA ranking features a highly international top 10. Several of the world’s top EMBA programs are joint ventures between institutions located across the globe which partner to offer executives globally-focused degrees. 

For example, the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA, offered by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ranks among the top five. Meanwhile the Trium Global EMBA, taught by France’s HEC Paris, the UK’s London School of Economics, and New York University’s Stern School of Business, ranks among the top 10. 

The FT EMBA Ranking is based on data collected using two online surveys: one that’s worth 52% and quizzes alumni who left their respective programs in 2022, and another that’s completed by participating schools and worth 48%. 

To participate, each EMBA must be cohort-based, with students enrolling and graduating together. Schools must also be accredited by either AACSB or Equis. 

The 10 best Executive MBA programs in 2025 

There’s significant change among this year’s FT EMBA ranking, with none of the top 10 schools retaining the positions they held in 2024. 

The WashU-Fudan EMBA leads, following by the Ceibs Global EMBA and the EMBA offered by ESCP Business School—which placed second previously—in third. The ESCP program is among the most global programs in the list, with executives able to study across France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, and Poland. 

Rounding out the top five spots are the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA in fourth—a program that has topped the ranking more times (12) than any other school—followed by the Global EMBA at France’s Skema Business School, which ranked 13th in 2024. 

The Trium Global EMBA drops one position to place sixth in this year’s FT list. It’s followed by the INSEAD Global EMBA in seventh, and the Fudan EMBA—a solo offering from the Chinese business school—in eighth. 

Also in the top 10 is the WP Carey-SNAI EMBA, another China-US program delivered by Arizona State University WP Carey School of Business and Shanghai National Accounting Institute (SNAI), in ninth. Finally, the Guanghua-Kellogg EMBA, taught by Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management alongside Northwestern Kellogg, rounds out the top 10. 

Financial Times 2025 EMBA Ranking: Top 10 

Financial Times Global EMBA Ranking 2025: Analysis

Executive MBA participants typically hold a significant amount of work experience and occupy management and leadership positions, often enrolling to gain access to c-suite and other top level roles. Generally, EMBAs take their degrees toward the end of their thirties or later, studying alongside their jobs. Students in the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA, for example, have an average age of 42 years.

When ranking the performance of EMBA programs, the FT places significant weight on the average salaries that EMBA students earn three years after graduation, as well as the increase in their salaries between pre and post-enrollment. Combined, these metrics comprise 31% of a school’s weighting. 

At such a high level in their careers already, EMBA salaries are often significantly higher than graduates of other business degrees, such as the MBA. The leading program in this year’s EMBA ranking of average alumni salaries is the WashU-Fudan EMBA, which sees alumni earn $718,662 on average after three years. This is more than $450,000 higher than graduates of the FT’s leading MBA program tend to earn after the same period. It’s also around $70,000 higher than the Kellogg-HKUST program, which ranks second in this category. 

The WashU-Fudan program also leads in terms of the average salary percentage increase between pre and post-EMBA, where its grads see a 134% jump—more than 10% higher than any other program. Combined, this strong salary performance has a significant impact on the school’s overall ranking position. 

A further 10% of a school’s ranking performance is dedicated to the FT’s research ranking, based on the number of articles published by faculty within a given period and weighted according to school size. This metric is dominated by some of the world’s most prestigious b-schools, with The Wharton School leading the way, followed by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and INSEAD. 

The FT also takes into account graduating outcomes when measuring school performance. Alumni views on the extent to which their program helped them achieve their goals are allocated 6%, while a further 6% is given to alumni career progress in terms of changes in their level of seniority and the size of the respective companies they work in. 

Within the aims achieved category, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business leads in 2025, with 77% of graduates rating the program positively. Meanwhile ESCP Business School leads the career progress rank, repeating the feat it achieved in 2024.

The FT also values other key metrics including cohort and faculty diversity, the percentage of full-time faculty who hold doctorates, and the work experience alumni hold before entering the program—measured in terms of years, seniority, and organization size.