IE Business School ranked No. 1 worldwide for online MBAs by QS

Madrid, March 26, 2015. IE Business School is the No. 1 School worldwide in the QS Distance Online MBA Ranking, an international report coordinated by the UK-based QS Intelligence Unit that examines the quality of online, distance and blended MBA programs. IE Business School has achieved the No. 1 position for the third consecutive year with its Global MBA Blended, a program that combines onsite sessions with online modules, undertaken to date by professionals from over 60 countries. This result comes soon after IE Business School’s success in the Financial Times ranking of Online MBAs published a few weeks ago, which placed the school in the No. 1 position worldwide for Online MBA programs.

The QS ranking reveals that in 2014 some 27% of MBA program candidates were interested primarily in online and distance MBAs, compared to 23.5% in 2013 and 4.4% in 2008. Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS, talked about the fact that the growing sophistication and variety of online and distance learning options means a growing number of candidates are now pursuing the opportunity to gain a world-class business education without the need to relocate or take a career break. “This year’s results show that employers are increasingly considering candidates from the top online and distance programs as part of their recruitment strategies.”

Ignacio Gafo, Vice Dean of Part-Time Programs at IE Business School explained that the business world cannot be understood without taking digitalization and globalization into account.  “Education has to move in lockstep with business and offer methodologies that prepare professionals to work in onsite and digital environments with multidisciplinary and global teams. At IE Business School we have been committed to blended formats for over 10 years now, with an extensive range of blended programs that are both high quality and extremely demanding, and which have been undertaken by over 2,000 managers and entrepreneurs from all over the world.”

IE Business School's portfolio of blended programs comprises the Global MBA, the Executive MBA, and the IE/SMU MBA, a ten-month program focused on Asian-Pacific business strategies, run jointly with Singapore Management University. IE Business School also runs the IE/Brown Executive MBA jointly with Ivy-League member Brown University, to offer a program that combines the experience and prestige of IE the business education sector with Brown's excellence in the field of humanities and social sciences. IE also runs the Global Executive MBA, a program for top managers which combines onsite modules in Spain, Singapore and Brazil, with online periods.