The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) has been ranked as the leading business school in Australia and among the top 50 business schools in the world in the Financial Times (UK) 2007 ranking of full time MBA programs.

Professor Alec Cameron, Dean of UNSW's Faculty of Business, which incorporates AGSM, said: "This strong result reinforces AGSM's international standing as a world class business school and its position as Australia's premier business school.

"It's a great result not only for AGSM but for Australian business education generally. To have a school ranked in the top 50 clearly indicates that management education in Australia is world class," Professor Cameron said.

The Financial Times ranking of MBA programs is one of the most prestigious worldwide. It evaluates programs by looking at the career progress of alumni, the school's research and intellectual outputs and the diversity and international experience it offers.

"The main driver of the overall ranking score is the career success of alumni, especially salary progression, which accounts for 55 percent of the ranking," Professor Cameron said.

"AGSM MBA graduates have an average salary level of US$115,693 and an average salary increase of 81 percent three years after graduation.

"The School has also performed well in other areas of career success such as the degree to which alumni have progressed in terms of seniority and company size, the extent to which the AGSM program has provided value for money, the degree to which AGSM alumni gained employment within three months of graduation and the extent to which alumni would recommend the AGSM.

"I am pleased to see that we also do well against the criterion of school diversity, especially in terms of the percentage of international faculty and women students."

This is the eighth consecutive year that AGSM has been ranked in the top 100 business schools worldwide on the strength of its full time MBA. In separate Financial Times rankings, AGSM's MBA (Executive) and Executive Programs have also been placed as the leading programs of their type in Australia.

The 2007 rankings show Wharton once again as the world's leading business school, followed by Columbia and Harvard.

The Financial Times 2007 MBA Rankings