It is the first time in the history of FT business education rankings that a programme has been placed so high on its first participation. The EMBA-Global Asia, delivered jointly by Columbia Business School, London Business School and the University of Hong Kong, enters the FT Executive MBA Ranking in second place in the first year it was submitted.

Only the joint programme delivered by Kellogg/HKUST managed to hold off the new entry, retaining the top place it regained last year. In total, this is the eighth time that this programme has been ranked number one. The Tsinghua University/Insead programme that came top in 2015 drops one place to third.

Two other intercontinental joint-programmes complete the top five, underlining the strong performance of programmes taught in partnerships in more than one country. In fourth place is EMBA-Global Americas & Europe, the sister programme of EMBA-Global Asia but delivered by Columbia and LBS only; and in fifth place is Trium, delivered by HEC Paris, LSE and NYU Stern School of Business, which was number one in 2014.