Spanish business school IE has scored a hat-trick by reaching the top spot in the Financial Times ranking of online MBA programmes for the third year in a row. IE came in ahead of the UK’s Warwick Business School, ranked number two for the third year running, and Durham University Business School, which made it into the top three for the first time.

西班牙IE商学院上演“帽子戏法”，在英国《金融时报》“在线MBA排行榜”上连续第三年夺冠。英国华威商学院(Warwick Business School)连续第三年排在亚军位置，英国杜伦大学商学院(Durham University Business School)首次跻身前三甲。

The 15 ranked online MBA programmes provide flexible study options for working executives, who can expect to graduate with the same qualification as their full-time, residential MBA counterparts.

上榜的15个在线MBA项目为在职高管们提供了灵活的学习选择，他们在毕业时可以获得与全日制“住读”MBA学员一样的学位。

While the FT online and full-time MBAs are not strictly comparable because the criteria used to judge them are slightly different, it is interesting to note that IE and Warwick Business School are among six schools to feature in both rankings.

尽管从严格意义上来说，英国《金融时报》在线MBA排行榜和全日制MBA排行榜没有可比性，因为二者的评判标准略有不同，但我们饶有兴致地发现，IE商学院和华威商学院等6所院校都同时登上了两个排行榜。

IE’s online MBA consistently attracts high-calibre students. Half of IE’s alumni were senior managers when they enrolled, the highest proportion among ranked schools at that stage. Three years after graduation they were earning the highest average salary at $179,000, about $30,000 more than the next highest earners — alumni from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

IE商学院的在线MBA持续吸引着高素质的学员。其半数校友在入读时为高管级别，为所有上榜学院中比例最高的。该学院的在线MBA学员在毕业3年后的平均年薪最高，为17.9万美元，比薪资排第二位的（巴布森学院(Babson College)奥林商学院(Olin Business School)）高出约3万美元。

IE’s alumni have the second-highest average salary increase following graduation, at 39 per cent. The school is ranked first for aims achieved and for international mobility. It is third for career progress. “There is a definite ‘before and after’ for career progression,” says one former student. “Post-MBA I felt I had more of a sense of direction not only of where I wanted to be, but also why, and how to make it happen.”

IE商学院校友在毕业后的薪资平均涨幅方面排在第二位，为39%。在实现目标以及国际流动性方面，该学院排名居首。在职业发展方面，排名第三。“在职业发展方面，攻读在线课程‘前后’确实是有差别的，”该学院的一名校友表示，“读完MBA后，我心中更有方向感了，不仅明白了自己想要达到什么目标，还有为何这么做以及如何达到目标。”

The same seven schools continue to dominate the top half of the ranking. AGSM at UNSW Business School of Australia entered the ranking for the first time in eighth position.

排行榜上前7所院校还是老面孔。澳大利亚新南威尔士大学商学院(UNSW Business School of Australia)澳大利亚管理研究生院(AGSM)首次上榜，排在第八位。

A minimum of 70 per cent of the con-tent must be delivered online in order for programmes to be eligible for the online ranking. Nine out of the 15 ranked schools had no requirement to study on campus at all. The remaining six schools insisted their students attend weekend or week-long residential classes.

作为参加英国《金融时报》在线MBA排名的一个条件，至少70%的课程内容须在线提供。在15所上榜院校中，有9所对校园学习不作任何要求。其余6所学院坚持让学员参加周末或为期一周的在校课程。

Schools relied on a wide range of technologies to ensure lively interactive delivery of their programmes including virtual classrooms, live sessions and multimedia teaching materials. Alumni were asked to rate delivery as well as indicate how effective online exams were. Results were encouraging. Schools appear to be getting better at online delivery. Every aspect of online delivery was rated higher than it had been in previous years, showing a greater level of satisfaction.

学校依赖于多种多样的技术，确保授课的活泼和互动性，包括虚拟课堂、直播授课以及多媒体教学资料。校友们被要求对授课质量进行评价，并说明在线考试的效果如何。结果令人鼓舞。在线授课质量似乎越来越好。在线授课所有方面的得分都比前几年高，这表明学员满意度提高。

“I was quite sceptical initially in doing an online course but the communication and online interaction were perfect,” says one graduate from AGSM.

澳大利亚管理研究生院的一名毕业生表示：“最初，我对攻读在线课程颇有疑虑，但沟通和在线互动非常棒。”

Overall, live and recorded content achieved equal scores overall of 8.8 out of 10, while online interaction and team-work were rated marginally lower.

总体来说，直播授课和录制内容均获得8.8分的高分（满分10分），在线互动和团队合作的评分略低。

Part of the appeal of online programmes lies in their flexibility, reach and slower pace of delivery than cam-pus-based MBAs. Apart from IE, which imposes an 18-month time limit, participants have on average about five years to complete their degrees.

在线课程的部分吸引力在于灵活性、覆盖范围以及授课进度比住读MBA慢。除了IE商学院（规定学习时间最长为18个月），学员平均可以用5年左右的时间来完成学位课程。

Having longer does not seem to make it easier, however. Proper time management is essential in order to maintain the momentum. “A couple of obligatory projects would help keep the pace and avoid a very intense last quarter,” commented one graduate from Warwick Business School. Overall, the graduates from the class of 2012 took slightly longer than 2.5 years to graduate.

然而，时间较长似乎并不代表学业较轻松。要保持学习劲头，合理的时间管理至关重要。英国华威商学院的一名毕业生谈到：“几个必修项目会帮助你跟上进度并避免在最后阶段非常紧张。”总的来说，2012级毕业生花了两年半多一点的时间完成学业。

Online programmes appeal more to senior professional students than those who take full-time programmes. Participants on online MBAs are aged 34 on average compared to 28 for full-time participants. Online students are also more likely to seek a promotion following the course with their existing employer. While the majority of full-time MBA graduates (90 per cent) worked for different companies three years after graduation, only about 55 per cent of online graduates did so.

在线项目比全日制课程更吸引作为高级专业人士的学员。在线MBA学员的平均年龄为34岁，而全日制MBA学员为28岁。此外，在线学员更有可能在课程结束后寻求在现有雇主那里获得升职。全日制MBA毕业生（90%）在毕业3年后多数都跳槽了，但只有约55%的在线毕业生会这样做。

They are also less likely to seek employment in a different sector after graduation. Only 30 per cent changed industry sector compared with nearly two-thirds of full-time MBA students.

此外，他们在毕业后改行的可能性更小。只有30%改行，而全日制MBA学员却有近三分之二改行。

One might expect that online programmes would appeal proportionately more to women than full-time programmes due to their flexibility. How-ever, data from the 2016 rankings show that women account for 30 per cent of enrolled students compared with 35 per cent for full-time programmes.

人们可能会认为，由于课程的灵活性，与全日制项目相比，在线MBA项目将更吸引女性。然而，2016年英国《金融时报》在线MBA排行榜的数据显示，女性占总学员数量的30%。在全日制项目中，女学员占到了35%。