Master Degrees

Attracting the best, thanks to a growing recognition of our uniquely international formula for success and emphasis on responsibility
Widgets
Content

It has been a rewarding journey for INSEAD’s master-level degrees over the past ten years – and the pace of change and innovation looks set to continue. As in previous decades, we were able to attract top talent to our classrooms and send our graduates back out into the world, equipped to be leaders. But during the past ten years, there has been growing external recognition of the school’s uniquely international formula for success and emphasis on responsibility. This was evidenced by our consistently high position in the Financial Times rankings, where our MBA programme has been #1 three times since 2016, and remained at #2 in 2023.

Content

The other big change has been the growth and rebalancing of our programme portfolio. Signalling our intention to be known for much more than a top-ranked MBA, we launched the pre-experience Master in Management in what turned out to be the middle of a global pandemic. Abbreviated to MIM – with a capital “I” for “INSEAD”, “International”, “Innovative” and “Impactful” – the programme has soared in popularity with both applicants and employers. The third intake in 2022–2023 has already risen to 160 students, and we are planning for continued growth, not only to serve the needs of our top recruiters but also to support our dynamic young graduates in starting their own ventures.

MBA'23D students on the Asia Campus
MBA'23D students on the Asia Campus
Content

Indeed, during Dean Mihov’s term at the helm of the school, entrepreneurship has been a strong theme across our entire portfolio – and particularly at the Executive MBA level. Whereas ten years ago, around 15 final Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) or Tsinghua-INSEAD Executive MBA (TIEMBA) projects focused on start-up ideas, today there are around 40. Our Executive MBA participants are now actively and successfully participating in the biannual INSEAD Venture Competition, organised by the Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship. The contest proved as popular as ever in 2022–2023, with finalists and prize winners from across our range of programmes, including the MIM’23, GEMBA’24 and MBA’23 classes.

 

In a world that faces great economic uncertainty, scholarships are particularly important, and we are proud that we have been able to maintain awards at historically high levels across the decade and across the portfolio. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, most of whom are alumni giving back to the school, we have been able to compete for the very best global talent, especially in the mature MBA market. It is thanks to scholarships that our doors remain open to outstanding students from all backgrounds and all geographies.

Programme-specific news

Content

In 2022–2023, the faculty approved changes to the MBA curriculum to ensure that the programme remains relevant to the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s business leaders. The thorough curriculum review process concluded that students should gain exposure to sustainability in all core courses, which will each have a learning objective linked to environmental and/or social topics. The programme will also conclude with a compulsory capstone course based on a simulation of sustainability-related challenges and opportunities in a global company. At the same time, we are continuing to develop sustainability-specific electives, which will allow students to deepen their knowledge in the areas most closely related to their future careers – an important insight gained from recruiter feedback.

 

Following the same logic, we have also introduced a new sustainability course in the MIM, as part of the P3 Practical. This covers business model innovation and circularity to highlight the importance of integrating sustainability into the design of business models.

MIM'23 on the Asia Campus
MIM'23 on the Asia Campus
Content

A broader degree portfolio has the added benefit of creating a broader business network for all our participants. The shared GEMBA, TIEMBA and EMFin electives, for example, continue to be a highlight of all three programmes. This year, we also welcomed a record number of alumni back to these electives, which are always held in July in Fontainebleau. During the year, we further experimented in Singapore with electives open to both MBAs and MIMs. For some subject areas, these combined courses proved to work very well and allowed students to expand their INSEAD network at the same time. We also held our first joint courses for GEMBA and MBA participants as part of our entrepreneurship and digital transformation field trips to San Francisco and the Deep Tech course at CERN – the world’s largest particle physics laboratory – in Switzerland.

Content

While AI has long been on the elective curriculum at INSEAD, the arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022 enabled our faculty to experiment with teaching innovations and new applications of AI across a range of business disciplines. The MBA core marketing course, for example, offered students the chance to build an ad using AI tools in their submission of a strategic marketing plan. The experiment resulted in some fascinating video, sound and speech creations for hypothetical products. Just as important, having resident faculty who are experts not just in AI but also in ethics has opened our students’ minds to the human implications of technological advances. This is a key ingredient of INSEAD’s distinctive mission to develop responsible leaders who create value for both business and society.

 

Last but far from least, our specialist part-time executive degrees continued to support the school’s mission of creating leaders with a positive impact on business and the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in our unique Executive Master in Change (EMC). Following last year’s accreditation by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles, we have created an external Advisory Board, updated our continuous learning assessments and recruited additional programme directors. Meanwhile, the small but highly regarded Executive Master in Finance (EMFin) and its company-specific spin-off with Aramco continue to develop financial leaders who make a difference.

New horizons

Content

In 2022–2023, we received French accreditation for a new online master programme: the Master in Business Data Analytics (MBDA) to be delivered predominantly online. However, as a result of reduced demand for distance learning in the master programme segment since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have put the launch on hold while we review our portfolio.

 

Participants at INSEAD Summer School '23
Participants at INSEAD Summer School '23
Content

In the summer of 2023, the first run of the INSEAD Summer School, now for undergraduates rather than high-school students, was held on the Europe Campus. This summer, we welcomed some 80 participants for two weeks to experience the joys (and challenges) of learning about business in an internationally diverse group. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and has resulted in many enquiries about our Master in Management.

 

EMC participants, March 2023
EMC participants, March 2023
Content

Indeed, MIM applications and class sizes are both increasing. We look forward to having new MIM-dedicated amphitheatres as part of the reimagined Europe Campus, which should enable us to attract even more of the best pre-experience students from around the world. Meanwhile, the more mature MBA market remains challenging, with the number of GMAT test takers in our target segment reducing further during the year.

Content

With these factors in mind, we completely reviewed our marketing and recruitment strategy during 2022–2023. The resulting decisions and significant investment in our new schoolwide Marketing and Recruitment Department, created at the end of the previous Academic Year, are already leveraging synergies, and sharing expertise to retain our competitive advantage. One example is our 'Ambition Has No Gender' campaign, which showcases a new Executive Education offering for female leaders, at the same time boosting the percentage of women across our degree portfolio. We are also beginning to see growth in applications from high-quality MBA applicants, which should allow our class sizes to return closer to pre-Covid-19 levels in the foreseeable future.

 

The quality and diversity of our students remain the cornerstone of our success, and we greatly appreciate the support of alumni in helping us to attract the right talent, conduct selection interviews and donate to scholarships, in addition to acting as inspirational ambassadors for INSEAD.

Class Statistics

Facts and figures from the intakes of 2022–2023.
Widgets

MBA

Content

Designed for early to mid-career professionals, and featuring an accelerated 10-month curriculum, our MBA programme develops successful leaders and entrepreneurs.

Title

MBA’23D

Item label
Students
Item value
439
Item label
Average age
Item value
29
Item label
Women
Item value
35%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
68
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
6.2
Item label
Average GMAT score
Item value
700
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Dec 2023
Title

MBA’24J

Item label
Students
Item value
429
Item label
Average age
Item value
29
Item label
Women
Item value
37%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
66
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
5.7
Item label
Average GMAT score
Item value
701
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Jul 2024

Global Executive MBA

Content

Our Global Executive MBA programme is tailored for experienced professionals who wish to develop their leadership skills while they continue to advance their current careers.

Title

GEMBA’24

Item label
Students
Item value
222
Item label
Average age
Item value
38
Item label
Women
Item value
34%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
57
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
14
Item label
Working outside home country
Item value
64%
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Jul 2024

Tsinghua-INSEAD Executive MBA

Content

This dual degree combines INSEAD’s global perspective and Tsinghua University’s in-depth expertise of business in China to produce highly successful business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Title

TIEMBA’24

Item label
Students
Item value
35
Item label
Average age
Item value
38
Item label
Women
Item value
51%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
11
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
14
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Jul 2024

Executive Master in Change

Content

The INSEAD Executive Master in Change takes participants deep into the basic drivers of human behaviour and the hidden dynamics of organisations.

Title

EMC (Wave 40)

Item label
Students
Item value
26
Item label
Average age
Item value
44
Item label
Women
Item value
58%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
19
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
19
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Feb 2024
Title

EMC (Wave 41)

Item label
Students
Item value
28
Item label
Average age
Item value
46
Item label
Women
Item value
57%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
20
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
20
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Apr 2024
Title

EMC (Wave 42)

Item label
Students
Item value
29
Item label
Average age
Item value
44
Item label
Women
Item value
69%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
16
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
20
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Jul 2024
Title

EMC (Wave 43)

Item label
Students
Item value
21
Item label
Average age
Item value
45
Item label
Women
Item value
57%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
19
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
21
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Nov 2024

Executive Master in Finance

Content

Blending cutting-edge theory and best practice, the programme is for professionals with work experience in finance-related roles.

Title

EMFin’24

Item label
Students
Item value
15
Item label
Average age
Item value
35
Item label
Women
Item value
40%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
10
Item label
Average years of experience
Item value
10
Item label
Average Executive Assessment
Item value
155
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Jul 2024

Master in Management

Content

Aimed at young leaders with a clear sense of direction when they finish their undergraduate studies. Students want a deep dive into business theory and a complete set of management skills. The MIM programme also focuses on leadership in global business with international experience integrated into the course of study.

Title

MIM’24

Item label
Students
Item value
177
Item label
Average Age
Item value
23
Item label
Women
Item value
38%
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
36
Item label
Average months of internship or work experience
Item value
11
Item label
Average GMAT score
Item value
689
Item label
Graduation
Item value
Dec 2024

Career Development Centre

A springboard for success in the global job market
Widgets
Content

The school’s large team of career and employment experts is a key component of our mission to create a new generation of responsible business leaders for the world. On an individual level, our in-house specialists are helping our students to navigate a steady path through today’s turbulent employment landscape, ensuring that an INSEAD degree remains a strong career investment, whatever the economic weather.

Content

Over the last decade, the department has grown considerably in terms of numbers and professional skills, and has been part of a seismic shift towards digitalised recruitment. The team’s responsibilities have also broadened to include the much younger MIM population at one end of the experience spectrum, and increased support for alumni and executive-master participants at the other. Yet, the same fundamental purpose remains: supporting our talented graduates to achieve their phenomenal potential.

MBA Career Fair, October 2022
MBA Career Fair, October 2022

Employment trends of the year

Content

During 2022–2023, the Middle East proved to be more of a magnet than usual for INSEAD graduates. Ambitious government masterplans in the region fuelled demand for talent and offered generous compensation, while traditional target locations for our students, such as the United Kingdom, experienced slower economic growth.

 

Meanwhile, continental Europe remains an attractive destination, as does Singapore, where policy makers are still keen to recruit international highfliers to the most skilled roles and sectors, despite its recent emphasis on career development for the resident population. During the year, to cater for our diverse master programme community, the Career Development Centre began to invest in developing strong relationships with employers in Asia, particularly Greater China. In the future, we are looking to adopt similar measures for India.

 

The global tech layoffs of late 2022 were not great news for the MBA’22D class. However, with continued healthy demand from consulting firms, the overall employment picture was relatively positive. Sadly, during the first half of 2023, demand from top consulting firms also receded, which meant that the MBA’23J class faced an even more challenging job market. The better news is that, as our traditional recruiters reduce their hiring targets in response to macroeconomic realities, our talented students are finding roles at a greater variety of companies than ever before, including those in the energy and resources sector, where we have observed a marked increase in demand. Employers’ enthusiasm for INSEAD’s newest degree programme continues, with 97% of the MIM’22 class receiving job offers within three months of graduation. Salaries were also higher than the previous year, the median level increasing by 19% and the mean by 24%.

 

Compensation for our GEMBA and TIEMBA graduates is also increasing significantly. For this group, we track outcomes 18 months after graduation. Those who completed their studies in 2021 have already experienced even better career progression in terms of function, industry, geography and remuneration than their predecessors.

Activities on and off campus

Content

Career events continue to evolve as corporate recruiters become more conscious of their carbon footprint and generational shifts in students’ expectations. This year, we innovated and added a series of quick-fire evening events to our calendar: 'Pitch and Network'. This involves inviting five to six companies to each give a five-minute pitch about themselves and their work on campus, followed by a shared networking event.

 

The benefit to the recruiters is that they meet a larger pool of talent than through the traditional presentation-and-networking format, while the students get to interact with several companies per evening, rather than just one. At the same time, we continued to run our traditional career fairs in a virtual format in order to meet the needs of our diverse students, multiple locations and worldwide corporate partners.

 

Physical career treks, however, remain eternally popular, as they immerse our students in a truly global business experience. In 2022–2023, INSEAD students visited London, Dubai, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Hong Kong, among other cities. The milestone events of the year was our inaugural treks to Riyadh and Madrid, introduced at the request of both students and employers.

 

Finally, true to our mission of empowering leaders for their lifelong career journey, we launched the Young Alumni Programme and expanded the Accelerated Job Search Programme to support our alumni community during their transitions in today’s challenging career world.

Employment Statistics

MBA'22D, MBA'23J, GEMBA'22, TIEMBA'22 and MIM'22 employment statistics.
Widgets
Title

MBA'22D & '23J

Item label
Received offers 3 months post graduation
Item value
88%
Item label
Average base salary
Item value
€113,400
Item label
Changed country
Item value
50%
Item label
Accepted offers 3 months post graduation
Item value
80%
Item label
Changed sector
Item value
48%
Item label
Changed all three dimension
Item value
25%
Item label
Countries employed in
Item value
57
Item label
Changed function
Item value
57%
Item label
Changed at least one dimension
Item value
78%
Item label
Consulting
Item value
61%
Item label
Technology, Media & Telecom
Item value
9%
Item label
Financial services
Item value
14%
Item label
Other corporate sectors
Item value
16%
Title

GEMBA’22 and TIEMBA’22

Item label
Changed employment status
Item value
72%
Item label
Internal promotion
Item value
18%
Item label
New sector / geography / function
Item value
6%
Item label
Created or returned to own venture
Item value
12%
Item label
Created own venture
Item value
9%
Item label
Americas
Item value
10%
Item label
Asia-Pacific
Item value
41%
Item label
Europe
Item value
29%
Item label
Middle East
Item value
11%
Item label
Africa
Item value
9%
Item label
Consulting
Item value
10%
Item label
Technology, Media & Telecom
Item value
25%
Item label
Financial services
Item value
19%
Item label
Other corporate sectors
Item value
46%
Title

MIM'22

Item label
Recevied offers 3 months post graduation
Item value
97%
Item label
Accepted offer 3 months post graduation
Item value
92%
Item label
Countries employed in
Item value
27
Item label
Average base salary
Item value
€59,000
Item label
Consulting
Item value
57%
Item label
Technology, Media & Telecom
Item value
12%
Item label
Financial services
Item value
18%
Item label
Other corporate sectors
Item value
13%
Title

Top MBA Recruiters 2023

Column 1
McKinsey & Company
Column 2
124 (*43)
Column 1
Boston Consulting Group
Column 2
83 (*25)
Column 1
Bain & Company
Column 2
71 (*18)
Column 1
Strategy&
Column 2
29 (*9)
Column 1
Kearney
Column 2
27 (*5)
Column 1
Roland Berger
Column 2
13 (*6)
Column 1
EY
Column 2
10
Column 1
Accenture
Column 2
9
Column 1
Oliver Wyman
Column 2
7 (*3)
Column 1
Samsung
Column 2
7
Column 1
Amazon
Column 2
6
Column 1
Lilly
Column 2
5
Column 1
AlixPartners
Column 2
4 (*1)
Column 1
Alvarez & Marsal
Column 2
4 (*1)
Column 1
Amphenol
Column 2
4
Column 1
Morgan Stanley
Column 2
4 (*1)
Column 1
RBI
Column 2
4
Content

* The number of students returning to their former employers post-graduation.

PhD Programme

A powerful investment in academic excellence
Widgets
Content

Thanks to the unwavering support of our donors and the school’s leaders over the past ten years, the INSEAD doctoral programme has retained its status as one of the world’s best, transforming the brightest minds into the great business thinkers of the future. Much more than a degree, the programme is an investment in the school’s reputation. Much more than students, those undertaking a PhD at INSEAD are at the heart of our research community. Much more than graduates, our alumni carve out careers in the world’s leading business schools and universities and become the global standard bearers of INSEAD’s academic excellence everywhere they go. We are therefore delighted to announce that, in the summer of 2023, INSEAD increased the PhD funding to ensure that the programme remains competitive with other top business schools.

PhD students Ekin Ilseven, Richard Grice, Nikola Kiprijanovski and Bengisu Urlu
PhD students Ekin Ilseven, Richard Grice, Nikola Kiprijanovski and Bengisu Urlu

Innovations of the year

Content

Our PhD newsletter, re-introduced in 2022, continues to maintain a strong connection with and between our alumni. Each annual edition showcases the year’s innovations, thus inspiring our alumni-turned-professors to encourage their best students to apply. And in 2022–2023, there were many new and continuing developments to announce. 

 

Among them, the Academic Writing Preparation Programme continues to help students to master the excellent writing skills required for their future as professors and, in the meantime, provides concrete tools for coursework requirements and journal submissions.

 

Other innovations this year include additional workshops to supplement students’ development as researchers – from practical tips on navigating academic careers and research pipelines to specialist statistical techniques.

New placements and awards

Content

As we have come to expect, our 2023 graduates secured positions at an impressive selection of institutions on three continents, including (in alphabetical order): Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Florida, HEC, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Hong Kong, IESE, Indiana University Bloomington, Norwegian School of Economics and Tilburg University.

 

Before entering the job market, INSEAD PhD students are already professionally active researchers who contribute to academic conferences and publications, often as co-authors with our faculty. In 2022–2023, leading journals published 14 articles co-authored by INSEAD students, who also won (or were finalists in) seven prestigious research awards.

Looking to the future

Content

Over the past few years, the PhD programme has consistently achieved male-female parity. This represents a long-term investment by INSEAD in a more gender-balanced future for business academia. We continue to receive applications from outstanding female applicants and are happy to announce that half of our applicants for the past five years, including the recently concluded applications for September 2024, are women.

Awards

Content

Prize winners in 2022-2023 included the following:

Content

Jiatao Ding 
(Technology & Operations Management) 

 

Finalist, Best Student Paper Award 

 

INFORMS IBM and POMS College of Service Operations Management 
‘Can Predictive Technology Help Improve Acute Care Operations? Investigating the Impact of Virtual Triage Adoption’

 

Title

Alumni (as of September 2023)

Item label
Alumni
Item value
270
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
45
Title

Current PhD Students - 2023–2024

Item label
Students
Item value
79
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
21
Item label
Women
Item value
57%
Title

Intake September 2022

Item label
Students
Item value
16
Item label
Nationalities
Item value
8
Item label
Women
Item value
62%
Title

Publication 2022–2023

Item label
Articles in journals co-authored by PhD students
Item value
14

Download

Annual Report Description
We are pleased to provide downloadable versions of Our Year in Review 2022–2023 and annual reports from previous years. All downloads are available in the PDF file format.