T he University of Melbourne has taken out the No.1 slot in the reputation category in the inaugural AFR BOSS list of Best Business Schools.Group of Eight universitiesThe overall winner of the AFR BOSS Best Business Schools, alongside the full ranking, will be published inMelbourne Business School is No.1 in Reputation in the AFR BOSS ranking of Best Business Schools 2022.
Each pillar has its own ranking and leaders, in addition to an overall ranking which combines the three components. These elements combine to create a self-reinforcing virtuous circle, he says, which for Melbourne Business School began in the 1980s when the Melbourne business community decided to fund a world-class business school, which is part of the university but is an independent institution.
Brent Ritchie, the dean of the University of Queensland business school, says reputation is “crucial” for business schools and rankings play a considerable part in influencing reputation. “We focus on excellence and continual improvement, and that’s the key.” “We invest in our staff and we invest in teaching excellence. I think that speaks volumes,” he says, adding that UQ has won more national awards for teaching than any other Australian university. “We’re a research-intensive university but we’re very passionate about our teaching.”
it’s much more on the reputation of the university and the reputation of the business school,” he says. Monash business school is ranked 17th in the world by the widely acceptedA business school’s reputation is fragile, Wilkie adds. “Because our disciplines don’t require expensive labs that become anchors, we’re quite mobile,” he says, noting that an exodus of senior academics can be fatal.
Being Australia’s oldest university is a prestige factor, says the University of Sydney business school dean Greg Whitwell. International accreditation is a measure students and academics set great store by, and the universities with the strongest reputations often have multiple international credentials.
The key to building on a solid reputation is continual improvement, he says: “It’s so easy to trash a brand, you have to keep working at it the whole time”.“We have to always be thinking about how we build our reputation, how we continue to focus on quality, because ultimately reputation is the result of doing things well.” It’s a long-term project, he adds, with responsibility shared across the whole organisation.