The world famous business magazine Forbes recently released its third annual list of China's most valuable business schools in the Chinese language version of the publication.

Ten full-time and 15 part-time MBA programs were selected at the top of the list according to the investment return. The full-time MBA of China Europe International Business School was the top pick for three consecutive years, while the Beijing International MBA Programs at Peking University was the winner for the part-time MBA for three consecutive years.

This year's investigation showed that the listed schools' graduates who finished their MBA courses in 2003 were promoted to higher posts rapidly and their income met a big increase four years after their graduation.

Among them, full-time MBA graduates needed 2.7 years averagely to recover the investment. Their average annual pension reached 233,000 yuan (US$30,173), 3.9 times what they earned before their MBA education.

The part-time MBA graduates needed 1.5 years on average to recover the investment. Their average annual pension reached 196,000 yuan (US$25,382), 2.8 times what they earned before the MBA education. Before their training, only 19.1 percent were high-level management staff. One year after they graduated, it turned to 28.6 percent, and 47.4 percent after four years.

The investigation also showed that more and more MBA graduates tended to create their own businesses, with 20.8 percent previously involved in private business and 10.3 percent owning their private companies at present.

When investigating the 2006 MBA graduates to reflect the status quo of their employment, it found that they had 6.9 years' working experience before the MBA education, and after graduating their average annual wage reached 141,000 yuan (US$18,260), an increase of 90.9 percent from before and 12 percent increase over 2005 graduates.

However, the list-making principal Liu Ruiming said, compared to these excellent business schools, many others had insufficient student resources and the income of their graduates didn't see any obvious increase.

Liu said the polarization of Chinese business schools will continue. The high level schools will win more fame and benefits for their brand images, while the others will meet difficulties in student resources and employment if they can't provide specialized MBA education. In the future, only the top-level schools can survive and become internationalized.

The 2007 Chinese most valuable full-time MBA programs (top 10):

• China Europe International Business School
• Beijing International MBA Programs at Peking University (BiMBA)
• School of Management, Fudan University
• School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University
• Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
• Nankai Business School
• Lingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University
• School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University
• School of Management, Xiamen University
• Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

The 2007 Chinese most valuable part-time MBA programs (top 15):

• Beijing International MBA Programs at Peking University (BiMBA)
• Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
• School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University
• Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
• School of Management, Fudan University
• Nankai Business School
• School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University
• School of Business, Nanjing University
• Lingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University
• MBA School, Shanghai University of Finance & Economics
• School of Management, Zhejiang University
• School of Economics & Management, Tongji University
• School of Management, Xiamen University
• School of Business, Renmin University
• Management School, Hunan University

China Youth, forbeschina.com contributed to the story.

(China.org.cn by Zhou Jing, April 18, 2007)