The annual World University Rankings issued by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) are among the best-known higher education rankings worldwide, alongside the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. In addition to its well-known university rankings by subject, QS also publishes the QS Business Masters Rankings.
In this year’s rankings, which include an increased number of ranking participants, WU performed very well again with four of its English-taught master’s programs.

• In the “Masters in Supply Chain Management” ranking, WU’s Master’s Program in Supply Chain Management took second place out of 68 programs ranked, after MIT (USA) (last year: second place out of 62 programs ranked).

• In the "Masters in Marketing" ranking, the WU Marketing Master is in 10th place out of 121 programs (previous year: 10th place out of 105 programs).

• In the “Masters in Management” ranking, the WU Master’s Program in Strategy, Innovation, and Management Control comes in 10th out of 178 programs ranked (last year: 11th place out of 155 programs ranked).

• In the “Masters in Finance” ranking, WU’s Master’s Program in Quantitative Finance achieved 16th place out of a total of 192 programs ranked (last year: 16th place out of 179 programs ranked).

Additional government funding needed to maintain top results

Rector Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger is pleased to see WU’s master’s programs perform so well in the rankings. She says, “The QS rankings are among the most well-known worldwide, and they are highly regarded among universities, students, and prospective students alike. Especially program rankings can help prospective students pick out the best programs in the subject areas they’re interested in. The excellent results of WU’s master’s programs in the latest rankings show that WU offers excellent academic quality in its degree programs, is a strong performer at the global level, and represents Austria well internationally.” As Rector Hanappi-Egger also points out, however, “Now we need a financial commitment from the government to be able to maintain this strong performance.” Due to soaring inflation rates and unforeseen expenses, Austria’s universities are currently facing additional costs of €1.2 billion. Without extra funding, the universities will be forced to implement massive cuts in essential areas such as research and human resources, which could also affect ranking results in the long term. After all, the most frequently used metrics for university rankings include not only publication data but also student-teacher ratios.

QS Business Masters Rankings: Successful alumni

The QS Business Masters Rankings, for instance, are compiled based on 12 individual indicators in five key metrics, and the data is based on surveys among academics and employers, information provided by the universities themselves, and publication databases. All WU programs included in the rankings received excellent scores in two categories: “Employability,” which is based on a survey of 62,000 employers worldwide and graduates’ employment rates, and “Thought Leadership,” which mainly includes research output and reputation indicators. The programs also did very well in the “Alumni Outcomes” category, which measures the success of program alumni.

QS Business Masters Rankings 2023

Rolling admissions are currently in progress for all of WU’s English-taught master’s programs.

Contact:
Cornelia Moll
Press Relations Officer
Tel: + 43-1-31336-4977
Email: cornelia.moll@wu.ac.at