Not a big difference in scores among ‘Big 4’ MBA schools
The criterion of Harmony in the organization determined the outcome of this survey. Although Korea Univ. scored high in Recruitment (No. 2), Potential for development (No. 4), Professionalism (No. 3), and Internationalization (No. 4), winning first place in Harmony in organization with an overwhelming score was critical. In contrast, KAIST and SNU ranked 6th and 7th place, respectively, in this criterion. Although Yonsei Univ. ranked higher than 4th place in all five criteria including Harmony in the organization, its overall score was lower than that of Korea Univ.

Korea Univ. has been ranked No. 1 in the BK21 Assessment conducted by the Ministry of Education for the past five years (2007~2011). This assessment takes into account 73 indexes including globalization, curriculum, research, and funds. Besides, Korea Univ. became No. 23 in the world ranking and No. 1 in the Korean ranking, according to the world-top 100 EMBA rankings issued by the U.K. Financial Times in 2011.

This survey on MBA schools provided similar results to the 2012 National Assessment of Business Schools conducted by Hankyung Business at the end of last year. Korea Univ. also took first place by the last year’s survey. Yonsei Univ. (No. 2) was ahead of SNU (No. 3) in the assessment of business schools last year. But, SNU (No. 3) overtook Yonsei Univ. (No. 4) in the assessment of MBA schools this year.

Contrary to the assessment of business schools conducted last year, Sogang Univ. (No. 6), Hanyang Univ. (No. 7), Inha Univ. (No. 11), and Dongkuk Univ. (No. 12) surpassed their rankings. KAIST College of Business was not considered in this assessment of MBA schools as they do not have an undergraduate program.

Among the five evaluation criteria, the most interesting standard was ‘Harmony in the organization.’ Korea Univ. took first place in this criterion with 835 points. Considering that KAIST made 839 points in Professionalism, it’s not notably high. However, it considerably differs from the score of Sungkyunkwan Univ., which took second place in ‘Harmony in the organization’, with 199 points. ‘Harmony in the organization’ is the only criterion in which the score-gap between first and second place is larger than 100 points.

Although Sungkyunkwan Univ. received a relatively low score compared to the school in first place, Sungkyunkwan Univ. received the highest ranking in Harmony in organization among all five criteria. This university was fifth in all categories, following the big 4 schools in the other four criteria. Hanyang Univ. also received the highest ranking of No. 4 following Yonsei Univ. (No. 3) in Harmony in the organization. Hanyang Univ. stayed seventh in all other criteria.

It is shocking that KAIST and SNU fell down to sixth and seventh places in Harmony in the organization. Personnel managers at top 200 companies appeared to make a harsh assessment that MBA graduates from KAIST and SNU lack the ability to harmonize with people in the organization. SNU also ranked sixth in Harmony in the organization from the assessment of business schools last year.

In general, women’s universities are also criticized that they are lacking the ability of harmonizing with people in the organization. Ewha Women’s Univ. and Sookmyung Women’s Univ. took 11th and 14th places in Harmony in the organization. Each of the two women’s universities had the lowest scores in Harmony in theorganization among five categories.

‘Clear’ distinction between high, mid, and low ranks

In the criterion of Internationalization, KAIST ranked at the top with 801 points. SNU, Yonsei Univ., and Korea Univ. took 2~4th places in order. However, the score difference between the big 4 schools was only 75 points, which is not as big as expected. It is also interesting that Sungkyunkwan Univ. which has received high praise for globalization took fifth ranking. This assessment considered both Sungkyunkwan MBA and SKK GSB (Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business).

KAIST also took first place in Professionalism with 839 points. This is the highest point among five evaluation criteria. However, it’s only 21 points higher than SNU, which took second place in Professionalism. KAIST and SNU are followed by Korea Univ. (No. 3), Yonsei Univ. (No. 4), and Sungkyunkwan Univ. (No. 5). Ehwa Univ. got the highest ranking in Professionalism, which was ranked No. 8, among all five evaluation criteria.

In the criterion of Potential for development, KAIST also took first place with 721 points and it’s followed by Yonsei Univ. (694 points), SNU (691 points), and Korea Univ. (662 points) which are ranked sequentially from No. 2 to No. 4. In Potential for development, the score difference between top 4 schools was only 59 points, which is the smallest gap compared to other criteria.

Yonsei Univ. got the highest score in Potential for development. Last year, Sungkyunkwan Univ. ranked at the top in Potential for development. However, this year, Sungkyunkwan Univ. lagged far behind top 4 schools and ranked fifth place.

For Recruitment, SNU came in the first place with 806 points. SNU was closely followed by Korea Univ. with 744 points. And then, KAIST (No. 3), Yonsei Univ. (No. 4), and Sungkyunkwan Univ. (No. 5) followed in sequence. At the survey of business schools last year, Korea Univ. and SNU were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

According to the final evaluation scores, 14 MBA schools are divided into three groups: Korea Univ., KAIST, SNU, and Yonsei Univ. in the upper ranks; Sungkyunkwan Univ., Sogang Univ., Hanyang Univ., and Joonang Univ. in the middle ranks; Ehwa Univ., Konkuk Univ., Inha Univ., Dongkuk Univ., Sookmyung Univ., and Chonnam Univ. in the lower ranks.