Abstract
Business schools globally operate in a market-driven environment and rankings are very much part of that environment. Rankings have a significant impact on a school’s ability to attract the top scholars, the most able students and research funding. Schools use rankings to support claims of excellence and ‘world class’ status. The purpose of this study is to explore whether an analysis of the historical development of business schools and business/management education in the UK, supported by reference to institutional theory, can help explain trends in rankings and the positions of different types of school. The analysis is based on a selection of undergraduate, MBA and research rankings published between 1984 and 2010. The findings of the study fit with the expectations of institutional theory: particularly regulations and normative path dependencies determined the rankings of different categories of university, e.g., ancient, plateglass, technology and post-1992.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ball, R. J. (1979). The London business school. The Business Graduate, 9(3), 3–6.
Beloff, M. (1968). The plateglass universities. London: Secker and Warburg.
Bradshaw, D. (2007). Business school rankings: The love-hate relationship. Journal of Management Development, 26(1), 54–60.
Corley, K., & Gioia, D. (2000). The rankings game: Managing business school reputation. Corporate Reputation Review, 3(4), 319–333.
Dacin, M. T. (1997). Isomorphism in context: The power and prescription of institutional norms. Academy of Management Journal, 40, 46–81.
Davies, A. B., & Salterio, S. E. (2007). Financial times business school rankings: A non-traditional assurance case in three parts. Accounting Perspectives, 6(1), 95–113.
Deephouse, D. L. (2000). Media reputation as a strategic resource: An integration of mass communication and resource-based theories. Journal of Management, 26(6), 1091–1112.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160.
Elbeck, M. (2009). Advancing the relationship between business school ranking and student learning. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 31(1), 81–88.
Financial Times. (2001). Financial times MBA 2001: The top 100 full-time global MBA programmes. Financial Times, 22 January.
Financial Times. (2010). Financial times MBA 2010: The top 100 full-time global MBA programmes. Financial Times, 25 January, Business Education supplement.
Fombrun, C. J. (1996). Reputation: Realizing value from the corporate image. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Fombrun, C., & Shanley, M. (1990). What’s in a name? Reputation building and corporate strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 33(2), 233–258.
Franks, L. (1963). British business schools. London: British Institute of Management.
Gioia, D. A., & Corley, K. G. (2002). Being good versus looking good: Business school rankings and the Circean transformation from substance to image. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 1(1), 107–120.
Golzen, G., & McGeary, L. (1993). The association of MBAs guide to business schools (10th ed.). London: Pitman.
Hazelkorn, E. (2008). Learning to live with league tables and ranking: The experience of institutional leaders. Higher Education Policy, 21(2), 193–215.
Hazelkorn, E. (2011). Rankings and the reshaping of higher education. The battle for world-class excellence. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
HEFCE. (2008). Counting what is measured or measuring what counts? League tables and their impact on higher education institutions in England. Bristol: Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Heugens, P., & Lander, M. W. (2009). Structure! Agency! (and other quarrels): A meta-analysis of institutional theories of organization. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 61–85.
Laughton, D. (2003). Why was the QAA approach to teaching quality assessment rejected by academics in UK HE? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(3), 309–321.
Marginson, S., & Van der Wende, M. (2007). To rank or to be ranked: The impact of global rankings in higher education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3/4), 306–329.
Martins, L. L. (1998). The very invisible hand of reputational rankings in US business schools. Corporate Reputation Review, 1(3), 293–298.
Martins, L. L. (2005). A model of the effects of reputational rankings on organizational change. Organization Science, 16(6), 701–720.
Nind, P. F. (1985). A firm foundation: The story of the foundation for management education. London: The Foundation for Management Education.
O’Leary, J., & Cannon, T. (Eds.). (1994). The times good university guide 1995–1996. London: Times Books.
O’Leary, J., Hindmarsh, A., & Kingston, B. (Eds.). (2001). The Times good university guide 2002. London: Times Books/HarperCollins.
O’Leary, J., Kennedy, P., & Horseman, N. (Eds.). (2010). The times good university guide 2011. London: Times Books/HarperCollins.
Paliwoda, S. J., & Harrison, A. C. (Eds.). (1988). The association of MBAs guide to business schools (7th ed.). London: Pitman.
Peters, K. (2007). Business school rankings: Content and context. Journal of Management Development, 26(1), 49–53.
Platt, J. W. (1969). Education for management: A review of the diploma in management studies. London: Foundation for Management Education.
Pratt, J. (1997). The polytechnic experiment 1965–1992. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press.
Robbins, L. (1963). Higher education: Report of the committee. London: HMSO.
Scott, W. R. (1998). Organizations: Rational, natural, and open systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Scott, W. R. (2008). Institutions and organizations: Ideas and interests (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Stolz, I., Hendel, D. D., & Horn, A. S. (2010). Ranking of rankings: Benchmarking twenty-five higher education ranking systems in Europe. Higher Education, 60(5), 507–528.
The Independent. (2009). The complete university guide: University league table 2010. The Independent, May 1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/the-complete-university-guide-university-league-table-2010-xhtml-1675616.html. Accessed 16 Sep 2010.
Times Higher Education. (2008). RAE subject ratings. Times Higher Education, December 18, p. 36. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Journals/THE/THE/18_December_2008/attachments/RAE_2008_THE_RESULTS.pdf. Accessed 5 Jan 2009.
Tiratsoo, N. (1998). ‘What you need is a Harvard’. The American influence on British management education, c. 1945–1965. In T. R. Gourvish & N. Tiratsoo (Eds.), Missionaries and managers: American influences on European management education 1945–1960 (pp. 140–156). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Tyson, G. (2001). A look behind the numbers. Selections, Fall, 8–15.
Wedlin, L. (2006). Ranking business schools: Forming fields, identities and boundaries in international management education. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Williams, A. P. O. (2010). The history of UK business and management education. Bingley: Emerald.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilkins, S., Huisman, J. UK business school rankings over the last 30 years (1980–2010): trends and explanations. High Educ 63, 367–382 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9446-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9446-7