The QS Business Masters Rankings 2020 published today, September 26, round off a very successful month for WU in terms of ranking results. Three of WU’s English-taught master’s programs achieved outstanding positions in the QS rankings. Earlier in the week, the daily newspapers Die Presse (Austria), FAZ (Germany), and NZZ (Switzerland) published their rankings of the 20 most influential economists of the year. WU Professor Harald Oberhofer is listed at place 16 in the Austrian ranking. Earlier this month, the German business daily Handelsblatt published its annual economics ranking. WU places 11th in the ranking of the best 25 universities in the field of economics research in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, making it the best Austrian university in this ranking.

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 the university rankings by subject, QS also publishes the QS Business Masters Rankings. In the 2019 ranking, WU achieved excellent results in these rankings with three of its English-taught master’s programs: In the “Masters in Finance” ranking, WU’s Master’s Program in Quantitative Finance climbed to 19^th place out of a total of 156 programs ranked (up from 20^th place last year). In the “Masters in Management” ranking, the WU Master’s Program in Strategy, Innovation, and Management Control came in 17^th out of 129 programs ranked (up from place 18 last year). 2019 also marks WU’s first entry in the “Masters in Marketing” ranking, where the WU Master’s Program in Marketing achieved an outstanding result, placing 10^th out of 76 programs ranked.

QS Business Masters Ranking: successful alumni

The QS Business Masters Rankings are compiled based on five key metrics, and they primarily use data from surveys of academics and employers. All three WU programs received excellent scores in two categories: “Employability,” which is based on a survey of 42,000 employers worldwide and graduates’ employment rates, and “Thought Leadership,” which mainly includes research output and reputation indicators. The two WU programs also achieved above-average results in the category “Diversity,” which takes into account the percentages of female and international students and faculty members, and in the “Alumni Outcomes” category, which measures the success of program alumni.

Best Austrian university in the Handelsblatt VWL Ranking

WU also moved up two notches to 11^th place in the Handelsblatt VWL University Ranking. The strongest researcher by publication output representing WU in the Handelsblatt Author Ranking is Andrea Weber (also affiliated with CEU and WIFO), coming in at place 54. WU Professor Amon Rezai takes place 72 in the Young Economist Ranking for researchers under 40, and WU Professor Clive Spash comes in at place 182 in the Lifetime Ranking.

“We are extremely pleased with these results. They confirm WU’s excellent worldwide reputation, both in research and among practitioners,” says WU Rector Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger.