The Financial Times have released their 2019 rankings for the top 50 open-enrollment program providers for executive education in the world. Executive education programs are designed for executives, business leaders and functional managers. The rankings are based on student and company ratings, and assess schools across sixteen different criteria. These include preparation, program design, teaching methods and materials, faculty, new skills and learning, follow-up, aims achieved, facilities, value for money, future use, international clients, overseas program, growth, partner schools and faculty diversity.

The IESE business school in Barcelona has topped this list for the fifth year in a row, scoring well across all categories because of its custom program, designed for corporate clients. Of the top twelve schools, three are based in France-- HEC Paris, Insead and Essec Business School-- and three --Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of Michigan: Ross and University of Pennsylvania: Wharton-- are based in the U.S. Interestingly, the Ivy Leagues just make the list this year, suggesting a trend of students and companies investing more in programs than the prestige of a well-ranked school.

While gender disparity is still a problem, two of the top twelve schools-- Iese Business School and University of Michigan: Ross-- have more female than male participants. Iese is also ranked on top for its diverse faculty, while Insead in France is rated the highest for international participants.

The rankings are in the table below: