2025 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
We’re proud to release the 2025 edition of our MBA Leadership Development Program Rankings- now in our 11th year! Thank you to all the students, schools, and employers who continue to support and contribute to this work.
This year’s numbers show a slight dip compared to 2024, but still an improvement over 2023. Participation remains well below the highs of 2021, reflecting broader global challenges. Economic uncertainty, delayed start dates, and reduced visa sponsorship (for international talent) continue to impact both student decisions and employer planning.
At the same time, MBA candidates are placing increasing value on purpose-driven careers. Sustainability, social impact, and global relevance are becoming essential components of successful LDPs. Programs that embrace innovation through digital skills, agile leadership training, and inclusive values are standing out.
As always, our goal is to bring clarity to a shifting market and help students and employers make informed choices. If you'd like deeper insights or program-level benchmarking, we’d be happy to support.
We hope you enjoy this year’s Ranking!
Download our 2025 Report
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2024 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
We are excited to release the 2024 Ranking of MBA Development Programs! It’s hard to believe that is the 10th year that we will be releasing these rankings. We'd like to extend a special thank you for all the support we have received over the past decade and look forward to continuing for many years to come.
Our analysis reveals that Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) are slowly regaining their popularity among MBAs but they are still not quite to pre-pandemic levels. We have noticed this past year that the students have put a higher emphasis on sustainability/CSR. This trend will surely have to be taken into consideration by the LDP managers in the upcoming years.
The landscape of LDPs is evolving, with a growing emphasis on digital skills and global perspectives. Many programs are integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning into their curricula to prepare leaders for the future.
Our goal with this report is to help students, career services and employers to gain a better understanding of student interest and trends in the various Leadership Development Programs. If you are looking for more market intelligence, candidate insights, or an individual LDP competitiveness, please do reach out!
We hope you enjoy the read of this year's Ranking!
Download our 2024 Report2023 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
What an exciting year we have had so far! And it with it, we release the 2023 Ranking of MBA Development Programs! This is already the 9th edition of the annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world.
Through the analysis, we observe that the attractiveness of the LDPs hasn’t quite yet reached the pre-Covid levels, when compared to just-in-time hiring roles. This can of course be related to a generational change and more students pursuing entrepreneurial paths than in the past. On the other hand, some of the programs have also started reducing their intake of candidates as well. We look forward to continuing observing the LDP market and interesting trends that erupt each year.
We hope this report will help you gain a better understanding of student interest and trends in the various Leadership Development Programs. If you are looking for more market intelligence, candidate insights, or an individual LDP competitiveness, please do reach out!
We hope you enjoy the read of this year’s Ranking!
Download our 2023 Report2022 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
Another year is behind us, and the time has come to publish our annual ranking (8th edition!) of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world, the 2022 Ranking of MBA Development Programs!
In the last two years, Covid has impacted student priorities relating to career development. This has been reflected in their decision making when it comes to LDP vs just-in-time hiring positions, and the job security that is related to it.
Most recently, and as things with the pandemic have been calming down, the LDP employers have been reporting various challenges, such as attracting the right talent and more candidates not accepting the offers.
When it comes to the MBAs, it has been reported that the possibility to work from home is one of the key factors for accepting LDP offers.
We hope this report will help you gain a better understanding of student interest in the various Leadership Development Programs.If you are looking for more market intelligence, candidate insights, or an individual LDP competitiveness, please do reach out!
We hope you enjoy the read of this year’s Ranking!
Download our 2022 Report2021 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
With great excitement we are happy to publish and share our 7th annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world, 2021 Ranking of MBA Development Program
Tracking and analyzing the trends and students’ interestsover the years is always intriguing. Recruiting this year hasbeen majorly impacted by the global pandemic, and soit has been quite interesting to observe the impact that it hashad on the development programs. The rankings areinfluenced primarily by the students’ views. However, tobetter understand the full picture, one must think of other underlying factors such as program locations, companychanges (including acquisitions and performance), industrytrends and events, geographical market trends and events,or even a global pandemic, to name a few.
In September 2021, we will be organizing the 3rd edition of the LDP Career Forum, where employers get to increase visibility of their program in short online Q&A sessions with top MBA talent. We would be happy to have you on board!
We invite you to take a look at this year’s ranking and let us know what you think. Share with your colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
Download our 2021 Report
2020 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
With great excitement we are happy to publish and share our 6th annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world, 2020 Ranking of MBA Development Programs!
Tracking and analyzing the trends and students' interests over the years is always intriguing. This year especially, there are quite some development programs that made a huge leap forward in the rankings. Naturally, the ranking is influenced primarily by the students' views, however, to understand the full picture of these changes, one must think of other underlying factors: program locations, company changes (including acquisitions and performance), industry trends and events, geographical market trends and events, to name a few.
In September 2020, we will be organizing the 2nd edition of the LDP Career Forum, where employers get to increase visibility of their program in short online Q&A sessions with top MBA talent. We would be happy to have you on board!
We invite you to take a look at this year's ranking and let us know what you think. Share with your colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
2019 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
We are happy to share with you our 5th annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world, 2019 Ranking of MBA Development Programs!
It´s exciting to observe changes and trends from one year to another, as well as to think further about the underlying factors, such as interests of this year´s MBA cohort, changes on company, industry and market level.
This report is composed of global ranking, followed by analysis by industry, functional area and school location. This year we added a new industry - Telecommunications, as well as analysis on placement changes from last year´s to this year´s ranking.
In September 2019, you are also warmly welcome to the LDP Career Forum, where employers get to increase visibility of their program in short online Q&A sessions with top MBA talent.
Take a look, let us know what you think, share with your colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
2018 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
We are happy to share with you our 4th annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world.
There are a lot of interesting changes that happened from last year and it's intriguing to observe how interest of the students for different programs changes from year to year. Besides the overall global ranking, you can find in this Ranking analysis by industry, functional area and school location. This year we also included information on how much each program has gained or lost in visibility compared to last year.
Take a look, let us know what you think, share with your colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
2017 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
We are happy to share with you our 3rd annual ranking of the most popular programs among MBAs from around the world.
In addition to the analysis by industry and functional area, we shed light this year on the popularity of programs as perceived by students in different regions of the world.
Take a look, let us know what you think, share with your colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
2016 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
MBA Students are increasingly interested in the fast-track careers offered by the MBA Development Programs. They searched our directory almost 200'000 times, to identify the right programs for them. This is an 80 % increase from the previous year.
We are happy to share their most popular programs in our 2016 Ranking of MBA Development Programs.
Let us know what you think, share with colleagues and students, and do reach out in case we can help.
2015 Ranking of MBA Development Programs
Interested in finding out the most popular internship MBA Development Programs? Finance Development Programs? or the ones in Asia?
We are happy to share the first Ranking of MBA Development Programs based on 122'343 program views by MBAs from our client business schools.
Take a look, let us know what you think, and reach out in case we can help.