Which MBA graduates earn the most?

US university Harvard may have the top ranked MBA programme in the world according to the latest global MBA survey from The Financial Times, but which business school offers the best salary prospects?

According to the survey, that honour goes to second-placed Stanford Graduate School of Business on the west coast of the US, where graduates earn an average salary of $184,566 (€134,903) three years after graduation, with Harvard graduates lagging slightly behind ($178,300). Other high salaries are earned by graduates of Wharton Business School at the University of Pennyslvania ($170,472); Columbia Business School ($164,181); and London Business School ($156,553).

Irish graduates also perform well when it comes to salary prospects. UCD for example ranks in 91st in the survey overall, but graduates earn, on average, $105,384, which is ahead of better performing peers such as the University of Rotman, in Toronto, Canada, which places 51st overall, with an average salary of $90,304.

Typically, the higher the college is ranked, the higher the salary prospects are for graduates, although there are some exceptions. The University of Cape Town in South Africa for example is 59th in the world, but graduates can command a salary on leaving of about $140,069, in excess of the average earned by graduates of Hong Kong Business School ($125,060).

The survey also shows that salaries are on the rise, with about 94 per cent of alumni responding said they had achieved the pay rises they had hoped for when they had enrolled on the MBA. However, while students who started degrees at the start of the downturn in 2008 and 2009 and who graduated in 2010 may have seen their salaries double during the past five years, this lags behind the mid-1990s, when MBA graduates from top US schools saw their salaries triple over the same period.

And, while salaries at the top-ranking schools may be chunky, the fees can be too, with fees at 24 of the 100 elite MBA programmes costing $100,000 or more, with additional living costs and one or two years of salary foregone. At UCD, the cost of a part-time executive MBA is €29,500, while the full-time programme over one year is also €29,500.