We are proud to announce that SBE further improved its ranking in the recently published 2023 CEO Magazine’s Global MBA Rankings. With a 4th place in the Global Executive MBA ranking and a 5th place in the Global online MBA ranking, our business school reconfirms the high-quality level of education and its prominent international status.

Showcase for top business schools

CEO Magazine has been showcasing top business schools from around the globe since it first launched in 2008. In 2012, the publication launched its annual Global MBA Rankings, profiling MBA, Executive MBA and Online MBA programmes. This year, CEO Magazine reached out to business schools across North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the BRICS, and ranked data from 121 schools, offering 239 different programmes in 24 countries. The top rankings in CEO Magazine’s Global MBA Rankings provide our potential students with a good benchmark of high performance for those schools under review.

Global footprint

The climb in global MBA rankings does not come as a surprise. The MaastrichtMBA programme has been working on its student diversity for many years now, and the current learning journey is a truly multinational and multicultural learning experience. The student body represents 53 different nationalities. This diversity and the way it enriches classroom dynamics give us a good shot at the top seats in the global MBA rankings landscape.

This article presents a publication of the recently launched CEO Magazine 2023 Global MBA Rankings. MaastrichtMBA is a part-time executive MBA programme, designed for working professionals. The programme is Triple Crown accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA. Read more about our accreditations & rankings via this link.

Last month, a new round of participants started the Brightlands AI Academy programme to get upskilled on artificial intelligence. The ambition is to improve the ability of these working professionals to identify opportunities for AI applications within their own organisations, validate them for value and then adequately act as clients to AI specialists to realise the desired AI application.

Erwin Boom, alderman for economic affairs at the Municipality of Venlo, held the official opening of the programme. Boom emphasised that AI can add value almost everywhere, even this morning on the way to the programme: “With the deployment of AI, the lift to the 16th floor of Innovatoren could automatically come back to the ground floor, without you having to press the button.” Alderman Boom sees many meaningful opportunities and concluded by wishing the participants good luck.

After the alderman kicked off, a brief introduction by the teachers followed. The students then started the content of the first module. This module involves gaining more insight into the potential and added value of artificial intelligence and will take the first three weeks. This will be followed by three more modules: developing an AI-driven innovation, validating technical feasibility and building sustainable business success.

Certified AI business professionals

To complete the programme, participants pitch their business case to their employer or sponsor and receive a certificate of participation from UMIO | Maastricht University and Fontys. They can also take online exams to be able to call themselves a certified AI for Business professional.

The first Lifelong Development Day, held on 9 September 2022, was considered a great success by both organisers and visitors. Through a panel discussion, info market, and 10 different break-out sessions, provided by various departments of the Maastricht University, over 120 attendees were introduced to everything the university has to offer for professionals.

Initiated by UMIO, Lifelong Development Day was the first time various executive education branches of Maastricht University got together to showcase their combines portfolios. Together with the LAW.next (Faculty of Law), Language Centre, DEXLab, the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, EDLAB, Facility Services, UNU-MERIT, SHE Collaborates, and the Maastricht School of Management, we put together a diverse programme that was very well received by the attendees.

After the event, we asked the attendees what they thought of the event. Respondents gave us an average of 4.4 out of 5, praising the “variety of subjects” during the break-out sessions, as well as the opening panel that “gave people something to think about”.  

With the presence of President Rianne Letschert during the opening panel, the Maastricht University underlined its ongoing commitment to lifelong development, further paving the way to make Lifelong Development Day a recurring event.

Mariëlle Heijltjes – Professor of Managerial Behaviour at Maastricht University and Executive Director of UMIO – was appointed “informateur” to explore possible coalition permutations with the main parties from Maastricht’s municipal elections earlier this month. The request came from the “Senioren Partij”; the party that came out on top after the recent elections.

Mariëlle will take on this task together with Wil Rutten, an experienced executive advisor who acted as ad interim city secretary in Maastricht most recently and who has led earlier coalition talks in 2014 and 2018.

During a kick-off session on 24 March, both “informateurs” will introduce themselves and explain to the sixteen party leaders how they intend to go about their exploration. Frans Bastiaens, leader of the “Senioren Partij”, has already indicated that he wants a new municipal executive with broad support within the council and the city.