UW-Madison Ranks First in Worldwide Executive Education Ranking

Open-enrollment executive education programs at the School of Business have been rated best in the world by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Wisconsin shares first place with three other schools, IE and IESE, located in Spain; and York University in Canada. Wisconsin and the other top schools received a cumulative rating of 4.2 on a five-point scale. U.S. schools that ranked below Wisconsin include Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan, Stanford, Ohio State and Penn State.

To create the ranking, an international survey of senior executives who attended executive education programs was conducted. They rated programs on factors including course content, impact, faculty, amenities, fellow participants, post-course support and value received.

“We are pleased that our executive education clients rate us highly,” said Business School Dean Michael Knetter. “Executive Education at the School of Business is continually working to anticipate the needs of our clients in a changing business environment. Our traditional certificate programs, as well as special offerings like the Directors’ Summit and Women’s Executive Leadership Summit, are all designed to help our clients advance their knowledge, skills and careers.”

Wisconsin was not listed in a separate ranking of top custom executive education programs. The business school only recently began offering custom programs for executive education clients. “In the future, we expect that our custom programs will gain the recognition our open programs already enjoy,” Knetter noted.

Most of UW-Madison’s Executive Education programs are held at the Fluno Center, which has twice received the highest worldwide rating for food and accommodations by another international publication, the Financial Times.