All participating business schools must meet the FT’s strict entry criteria. The school must be accredited by AACSB or Equis and programmes must have run for four consecutive years. At least 70 per cent of the content must be delivered online. The participants must also pass a selection process before enrolling and an examination process before graduating. Data collection was carried out via two online surveys: the first was completed by participating schools; and the second by their alumni who finished their Online MBA in 2019. The ranking uses 20 indicators:  

Salary today US$ (12%) - average alumni salary three years after completion, $ PPP equivalent.

Salary increase (12%) - percentage increase in alumnus salary in the current job versus three years ago on completion.

Value for money (4%) - calculated according to alumni’s salary, tuition, fees and other costs. 

Career progress (4%) - progression in the alumni’s level of seniority and the size of the organisation they now work for, versus three years ago on completion. 

Aims achieved (4%) - the extent to which alumni fulfilled their goals for taking an online MBA. 

Careers service (4%) - effectiveness of the school careers service in terms of career counselling, personal development, networking events and recruitment, as rated by their alumni.

Programme delivery (5%) - how alumni rate the online delivery of live teaching sessions, other teaching materials and online exams. 

Online interaction (10%) - how alumni rate the interaction between students, teamwork and the availability of faculty.

Sector diversity rank (2%) - calculated according to the diversity of sectors the students worked in at the time of admission, before the MBA.

Female faculty (3%) - percentage of full-time female members of faculty.

Female students (3%) - percentage of female students on the MBA programme.

Women on board (1%) - percentage of female members on the school advisory board.

International faculty (4%) - percentage of full-time faculty whose citizenship differs from their location of employment.

International students (4%) - percentage of current students whose citizenship differs from the location of the school.

International board (2%) - percentage of the board whose citizenship differs from the location of the business school.

International mobility rank (4%) - based on alumni citizenship and the locations where they worked before their MBA, on completion and three years after. 

Carbon footprint rank (4%) - calculated using the net zero target year for carbon emissions set by the university or school, and a publicly available carbon emissions audit report within the last three years.

Faculty with doctorates (5%) - percentage of full-time faculty with a doctoral degree.

ESG and net zero teaching rank (3%) - proportion of teaching hours from core courses dedicated to ethics, social, environmental issues and climate solutions for how organisations can reach net zero.

FT research rank (10%) - calculated according to the number of articles published by a school’s current full-time faculty members in 50 academic and practitioner journals between January 2020 to October 2022. The rank combines the absolute number of publications with the number weighted relative to the faculty’s size.

For the three gender-related criteria, schools that have 50:50 (male: female) composition receive the highest score.