In a Business Week Special Report on Executive Education, the Sloan School of Management's programs ranked number one in information systems, R&D management and manufacturing. The report, published in the magazine's October 20 issue, rated Sloan number 10 overall, ahead of the University of Chicago and just below Duke University.
The rankings were based on a survey of corporate human resources and management development executives at nearly 400 companies. Heads of 35 leading executive education and 61 executive MBA programs were also polled.
The rating was achieved despite the report's focus on non-degree programs. Sloan's main emphases in executive education are its 12-month degree programs -- Sloan Fellows and the Management of Technology (MOT). Both are experiencing record interest. In Business Week's previously published Guide to the Best Executive Education Programs, Sloan's MOT and Sloan Fellows program were rated among the 10 most innovative programs, the only school with two initiatives in the top 10.
"Sloan takes a distinctly different approach to executive education from other business schools," said Dean Glen Urban. "These results speak well of Sloan's reputation and its small but growing number of specialized programs."
Sloan also offers a select set of short courses that leverage the future-oriented perspective of the school's research programs in such areas as system dynamics and the management of technology.
"We've been pleased to see the strong interest in our expanded open-enrollment, company-specific and distance learning initiatives," said Robert Halperin, director of executive education at Sloan. "These programs have made Sloan's research and knowledge of best practice more accessible to a management audience."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 22, 1997.
