Ranked 46th this year, up from 67th last year, it is the highest a Singapore business school has been ranked.

The National University of Singapore's MBA - ranked 81st last year - is unranked this year due to 'incomplete data collected', said Professor Kulwant Singh, the interim Dean of NUS' Business School.

The previous dean, Professor Christopher Earley, stepped down last month and a global search is on for his replacement.

As for the Singapore Management University, it announced the launch of its first MBA only last week.

The FT list assesses three broad criteria: the career progression of alumni; international diversity; and how well ideas are generated.

The Nanyang Business School scored well in four components: international mobility, student diversity, international exposure and value for money.

But it is the survey's heavy stress on the career progression of alumni that has worked to the school's advantage, because of items like percentage of salary increases.

In the case of NTU's Class of 2004, which was audited, this went up by 111 per cent three years after graduation.

The dean, Professor Jitendra Singh, noted that his graduates' pay packages correspond to the dramatic salary increases in the region, especially in China and India.

This salary boom also accounts for the high rankings of previously unranked schools like China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University at No. 41 and the Indian School of Business at No. 20.

Top on the FT list is the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, a position it has held for eight of the 10 years since the ranking was started. The London Business School and the Columbia Business School take second and third spots respectively.

French business school Insead, which has a campus here, is in the sixth position.

The ranking is compiled based on two sets of surveys - one of school alumni who graduated from the programme three years ago, and the other of the school.

Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.