UCD's Smurfit School of Business in Financial Times Top 100
UCD has placed in the Top 100 global graduate business schools according to statistics released by the Financial Times. UCD's Smurfit School of Business was the only Irish institution in the Top 100 global ranking, with graduates seeing on average a 71% salary increase following completion of a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
Trinity was not included in the Financial Times rankings, as the Trinity Business School does not participate in the FT rankings due to it currently undergoing accreditation. In comment to Trinity News, Emma Dooney of the Trinity Business School noted that "once this process is complete the School is expected to rank highly".
UCD was placed 16th globally for "value for money," which was calculated by assessing factors such as fees and alumni salary. For the 2017/2018 academic year, a full time MBA will cost €34,500 at UCD Smurfit School and €32,000 at Trinity. According to The Economist's full-time MBA rankings for 2016, the Trinity MBA is ranked 86th, whereas UCD is 84th and in terms of post-MBA salary Trinity rank 53rd with UCD at 77th.
The report noted that 88% of UCD's latest graduate class secured employment within three months of graduating, while 98% said that they would recommend the UCD Smurfit MBA Programme. On average, UCD MBA graduates earned $113,904 this year, while MBA graduates globally earned $142,000.
According to the QS Global 250 Business Schools Report 2017, Trinity was placed in the top 250 full-time MBA programmes and was classified as "Superior for Research & Employability". According to the 2015/2016 Eduniversal Best Masters Rankings for full-time MBAs in the Western Europe region, Trinity Business School rank 5th while UCD are 18th.
In her comment to Trinity News, Dooney stated that "this is not really an Trinity versus UCD issue. Both universities are competing in the global education market, not against each other. The healthy competition between the two can only result in both Business School's raising their game and improving their rankings globally."
Trinity has invested €70m as part of a total €295m plan for a new business school which is scheduled for completion in 2019. By June 2016, €11.5m was raised by over 30 independent business individuals who have become Patrons of Trinity's new school. The school will replace buildings such as the Luce Hall sports centre and the Simon Perry engineering building on Pearse Street.
Article update on the 9th February for accuracy.