For the ninth time, the Perspektywy Educational Foundation announced the results of the MBA Ranking. The event and the Leaders in Management Education Forum preceding the gala were attended by Dariusz Standerski, Secretary of State from the Ministry of Digitization, and a strong team from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education - Izabela Stępień, Director of the Department of Science, Zuzanna Hazubska, Advisor to the Minister, and Dorota Krupa, Director of the Office of the Director General. The forum and gala took place on February 29 at the Novotel Centrum hotel in Warsaw.

The ceremony was attended by rectors and directors of business schools from universities running the top 15 MBA programs in Poland. First place in the 2024 ranking went ex aequo to the Canadian Executive MBA program of the Warsaw School of Economics and the Executive MBA program of Kozminski University. Third place went to the Poznań-Atlanta program of the Poznań University of Economics.

According to ministers

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Dariusz Wieczorek, the Minister of Science, in a letter addressed to Waldemar Siwiński, the founding president of the Perspektywa Educational Foundation, and the forum participants, called the Perspektywa MBA Ranking "a valuable initiative," and the meeting of the directors of the best MBA programs in Poland "a convenient opportunity for a debate on restoring MBA studies to the prestige they deserve."

The importance of well-educated graduates of MBA programs in the context of the National Recovery Plan, but also of Poland's economic development in the long term, was pointed out by Dariusz Standerski, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Digitization: - The main challenge we face is adapting to changing conditions, to the technological and digital revolution that must enter small and medium-sized companies, otherwise our entrepreneurs will not be able to cope with foreign competition, which is not waiting for us. That's why we need the best-educated male and female managers to manage all these processes. That's why MBAs will become increasingly important.

The debate around the MBA

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Opening the Forum of Leaders in Management Education, the creator of Polish educational rankings, Waldemar Siwiński, noted: - We need good managers, and what we are doing by creating the MBA Ranking stems from the desire to indicate which universities are educating the best managers.

Meanwhile, Dominika Bettman, chairwoman of the MBA Chapter and CEO of Microsoft Poland, said: - I am convinced that the quality of education translates into the quality of business. What kind of graduates end up in Polish companies is a fundamental condition for business success. That's why cooperation between business and academia has been on my mind for years.

The market values MBAs

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During the Forum, the debate on what MBA programs are and should be was conducted from the perspectives of employers (business perspective), MBA program directors (management education perspective) and rectors (broader academic perspective).

The first panel (What kind of managers does the market need?), which was moderated by Marcin Petrykowski, president of Atende SA, attention was paid to the fact that MBA studies are a conscious huge effort dictated by the desire for self-development and expansion of one's knowledge (this was said by Katarzyna Majewska, CitiBank Handlowy), that managers undertaking such studies are conscious leaders for whom it is not the mere fact of "passing an MBA" that counts, but the resulting knowledge, skills and network (Monika Stołowska, Deloitte), and that it is safe to call graduates of good MBA programs good leaders, i.e. people ready to act as role models, coaches and mentors for their employees in their organizations (Dominika Bettman, Microsoft Poland).

Maja Meissner (Meissner and Partners), stressing the usefulness and advisability of Perspektywa's MBA Ranking, pointed out that it should be announced every year, as the changing business reality and MBA programs adapted to it require it. She also stressed, "I believe that the scandal that erupted around Collegium Humanum is an excellent starting point for a debate on what MBA studies in Poland should be like. 

Directors about MBA

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The panel of directors of the best MBA programs in Poland, was moderated by Ewa Barlik, editor of mba.perspektywy.pl, which was inaugurated on February 29. Speakers at this debate, answering the question posed in the title of the panel: How to educate managers for the needs of the labor market, spoke both about the concepts of managerial education adopted at their universities, about the distinctive features of individual programs, but also about the future of MBA studies in Poland. Dr. Sylwia Halas-Dej, director of the Executive MBA at Kozminski University (1st place ex aequo in the Perspektywy 2024 MBA Ranking), when asked about the immediate future of MBA studies, pointed out: - In a few years, the overall structure of MBA programs will not change, as we are bound by a certain canon of educating managers, but some content will certainly be modified. This is due to changing trends, which, as those responsible for educating managers in the best possible way, we must follow.

In turn, Professor Rafal Mrówka, Director of the Office of MBA Programs, Warsaw School of Economics (the CEMBA program took ex aequo 1st place in the Perspektywy 2024 MBA Ranking), emphasized: - Candidates applying for MBA programs are changing, we already pay attention to the diversity of applicants when recruiting, and we select groups of students in such a way as to make MBA education an even more transformative experience. He added that for the best MBA programs, competition in the form of offerings from schools like Collegium Humanum is no threat: - I not only believe, but I know, that we will do well, because the best managers choose the best programs, aware of the importance of an MBA for their development.

Professor Anna Matysek, enumerating the unique features for the Poznań-Atlanta Executive MBA program conducted at the Poznań University of Economics, said: - "It is first of all the 'two legs' of our program, i.e. the two universities that make it up (UEP and Georgia State University). It's also unusual subjects, such as public speaking classes or theater workshops, and finally it's the overseas travel session, during which our students visit more than a dozen companies, from startups to large corporations.

In turn, Prof. Grzegorz Karasiewicz, dean of the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw, noted that in the case of MBA programs, the overall context of the university that conducts these studies is not insignificant: - Our strength is the interdisciplinary background that Warsaw University offers. We can draw on it, fitting into the trend of modern multidisciplinary education of managers.

 

Rectors about MBA

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The last word during the Leaders in Management Education Forum belonged to the rectors of the best business schools in Poland. The rectors' session was chaired by Dr. Bianka Siwińska, president of the Perspektywy Educational Foundation.

Prof. Grzegorz Mazurek, rector of ALK, stressed: - Collegium Humanum is not our problem, that is, the rectors or directors of the best MBA programs in Poland, and the students and graduates of these programs. It is, I will say in an upper-crust way, Poland's problem that a system has been created that allows people who take shortcuts to manage public institutions.

The rectors, considering solutions to the problems accruing around management education in Poland, noted that additional regulation of MBA programs is not at all necessary. Prof. Piotr Wachowiak, rector of SGH, said: - The evaluation of the quality of MBA studies should take place exclusively through international accreditations. After all, gaining these accreditations is a long and very difficult preparatory process for universities, followed by a multi-stage audit that results in the awarding of a certificate for several years, to be followed by another evaluation, in which, among other things, it is necessary to demonstrate how a program develops and adapts to changing conditions.

On the other hand, Prof. Maciej Zhukowski, rector of UEP, noted: - If we start to introduce our own national regulations of MBA programs, doubts and differences of opinion will start to emerge. And after all, it is already the market, the business that verifies the quality of our MBA programs, and it is here, in the business, that the source of the best regulations is.

The debate on MBA studies in Poland was summarized by the official announcement of the results of the Perspektywy 2024 MBA Ranking, accompanied by the presentation of diplomas to the directors of the top 15 MBA programs in Poland.

Prof. Grzegorz Mazurek, rector of ALK, receiving the diploma for first place for the Executive MBA program, said: - As a university, we feel a huge responsibility for competitiveness, for the flourishing of Poland.

Prof. Piotr Wachowiak, Rector of SGH, congratulated the entire Golden Fifteen on their places in the ranking: - For all of us, this is an excellent distinction, and I think that it doesn't matter so much whether we are ranked first, second or next in this ranking, because we are simply the best. However, we must all make an effort to improve the reputation of these studies, it is our common goal that in a year's time these studies will be spoken of very well.

 

Full results of the MBA Ranking here.

Magda Tytuła

Fot. Anita Kot