The University of Notre Dame MBA program ranked No. 1 for ethics in the Bloomberg Businessweek MBA Specialty Ranking, announced Monday (Dec. 17). The ethics ranking was released as part of the publication’s 2012 Best B-Schools ranking, where the Notre Dame MBA program landed at No. 20, improving four slots compared to its 2010 result.
The specialty ethics ranking is based on responses to an online survey of graduates from the MBA Class of 2012, who ranked their program’s ethics offerings from “poor” to “outstanding.” According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the average ethics score for all 82 U.S. and international schools in the ranking was 4.64. The Notre Dame MBA located at the Mendoza College of Business had the top rank of 5.87, followed by University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
The editors noted that ethics as a subject area “has seen a boom on b-school campuses over the past five years.”
“The ranking is a wonderful recognition of our values-based approach to business, which is foundational to the mission of Notre Dame and the Mendoza College,” said Mary Goss, senior director of the Notre Dame MBA. “It’s not a trend for us, but the essential core of what we do, who we are, and what kind of business leaders we hope to develop.”
The article quoted Philip Negri, a member of the Mendoza Class of 2012, as saying the College’s focus on values in business is the most unique element of the MBA program, and that ethics is integrated “seamlessly within every course and every lesson.”
Bloomberg Businessweek also listed several of the ways that ethics is integrated into the program, including the student-created “MBA Values Statement” that hangs in every classroom; the daylong community service project students participate in as part of orientation; and the fact that each of the 20 core courses and 143 electives that Mendoza offers incorporates social, ethical, or environmental issues through readings, assignments, and class discussion.
The Bloomberg Businessweek Specialty Rankings will rate nine specific areas of the b-school programs altogether, and will post the remaining eight specialty rankings online over the next few weeks.
To view the complete specialty ethics ranking, visit Bloomberg Businessweek’s MBA Rankings: Top Schools for Ethics.