Business Schools are by far the most competitive units at Canadian universities. Business schools at the major universities are especially competitive, vying with each other for media favour, corporate sponsorships, and higher positions in global rankings of business programs.

Yet, for all the competitive fervour of the large business schools, the category as a whole appears to be making little or no progress in the esteem of business leaders. Canada’s business leaders continue to see only a small difference in value between those who hold an MBA and those who hold other types of master’s degrees. They are slightly partial to MBA graduates from small schools as a result of a concern about the perceived arrogance of those who graduate from the brand name business schools. They see b-school graduates as reasonably well trained for FP-100 companies but for few other employers. They see newly minted MBAs as well informed on finance, less well informed in a variety of other areas, and poor in their mastery of international business and individual sectors and in their ability to work with other people.

These are some of the findings from this week’s web survey, conducted on behalf of the National Post under sponsorship of accounting firm BDO Dunwoody and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce

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