The Financial Times has listed UCD Smurfit Graduate School’s MSc in International Management as the 3rd best of its kind globally. This is the fourth consecutive year that the programme has been ranked in the top 10 but marks the highest ever ranking of a Smurfit programme to date.

Professor Anthony Brabazon, Dean of the UCD College of Business, believes the prestigious ranking will ‘set a new standard of excellence in business education in Ireland’.  In addition to achieving the highest ranking of any Smurfit programme, this Masters of Sciences has received the highest FT ranking of any Irish university. The programme is also positioned first in the world for international mobility.

The MSc in International Management is a dual degree whereby graduates are awarded an MSc in International Management from the Smurfit School alongside a Masters in International Management (MiM) from CEMS, a global alliance of leading business schools, multinational companies and NGOs. Of the 33 business schools that make up CEMS, UCD Smurfit School is the only Irish participant.

Academic director of the MSc in International Management Associate Professor Andrew Keating says the aspiration of the programme is ‘to inspire the next generation of impactful business leaders’. 

The rankings are determined by a number of factors with the most weight given to graduate salaries and salary increases. The percentage of graduates employed after 3 months, value for money, aims achieved and diversity among students, faculty and the board are also considered. The average salary of students from the top 100 programmes was $81,537 while the equivalent figure for the Smurfit programme was $94,517.

42 students were enrolled in the course for the 2020/21 academic year, reporting an overall satisfaction level of 9.68/10. This is a testament to the teaching and support staff at the Smurfit School who had to adapt to changing learning conditions during the pandemic and still succeeded in providing world-class postgraduate education in business.

Alice Wright – Reporter