Published: Nov. 8, 2018 By

University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business is ranked #67 (29th public) for its full-time MBA program according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2018 rankings, released on November 8. The significant increase can be attributed, in part, to the recent innovative enhancements Leeds has made to its programs, increased engagement and partnerships with its business community, and the hiring of talented faculty from around the world. In the last two years alone, Leeds has welcomed faculty from universities such as Berkeley, Northwestern, Wharton, London Business School, and Harvard.

As one example of its connection to the community, Leeds recently partnered with more than 70 key business leaders and influencers, locally and globally, to understand the essential skills and attributes students will need to respond, embrace and lead changes in the 21st century workplace. Their insights are informing innovations in programs and curriculum, which will further amplify the career success of Leeds’ graduates.

“We are very proud of this momentum,” said Dean Sharon Matusik, “But we consider it just the beginning. We have a top-notch MBA experience for our students. Our world-class faculty are not only producing highly impactful research but are also creating an education that prepares students to lead in the future. The classroom learning combined with access to our business community—which is known around the world for being entrepreneurial, innovative and with an orientation toward creating both economic and social value—provides a distinctive educational experience that prepares our graduates to positively transform the future of business.” 

A modernized approach to methodology

These efforts at Leeds substantially align with changes Bloomberg made to this year’s ranking methodology, which assessed MBA programs’ value from the perspective of graduating students, recent alumni, and companies that recruit MBAs. The modernized methodology is organized into four new index categories that were created based on their importance to respondents: Compensation, Learning, Networking and Entrepreneurship.

Bloomberg senior editor, Caleb Solomon, told Poets & Quants, “Rather than assign weightings ourselves, as most rankings do, we took an approach recommended by several of the business schools we spoke with: Let the stakeholders decide. … Their answers determined the weightings of each of our new indexes.” Bloomberg used the results and the compensation data as building blocks for calculating the overall ranking.

Leed-ing the way in entrepreneurship

Leeds School of Business ranked #10 overall in the Entrepreneurship category, which confirms our edge in this area of the marketplace. Situated in the heart of Boulder and the Front Range, Leeds has direct access to an incredibly distinctive, vibrant entrepreneurial business community with a wealth of venture capital and startup opportunities. Along with its forward-thinking Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship is a field Leeds excels in for its students, graduates and employer partners.

The entrepreneurial, experiential learning that Leeds provides, both in the community and in the classroom, allows students to go as far as they want in venture opportunities and provides a strong network of connections and resources to turn to for guidance. The entrepreneurial mindset allows students to excel at starting their own ventures, building out the business side of scale-ups, and innovating in established organizations. As Bloomberg’s data shows, Leeds is definitely on to something.

Leeds Rankings