Where Insead leads, others follow. These days, one-year MBA programmes are growing in prominence and quality across Europe and Asia.
In 2004, there were just six one-year programmes ranked in the top 50 of the Financial Times global rankings; in 2009, 15 of the top 50 programmes ran for 12 months or less; Insead still runs the shortest programme at 10½ months. Over the same period the number of two-year programmes in the top 50 dropped from two-thirds (33) to less than half (23).
But while one-year programmes are de rigueur in Europe, US schools have been slow to adopt the model. This is because there is little demand for shorter programmes, says Tom Robertson, dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “The US is a two-year market,” he says. “If we saw the evidence that the market was moving away from two years, then we would lead the way.”