BoF Global Fashion School Rankings Methodology 2016

The Business of Fashion’s Global Fashion School Ranking aims to provide an objective assessment of the top undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MA) fashion programmes around the world, based on 60 different data points gathered from 54 participating institutions, surveys completed by over 10,000 students and alumni, feedback from over 130 HR professionals, global fashion influencers, fashion school academics and our own BoF analysis.

The BoF Global Fashion Schools Ranking is based on three major indicators of quality:

• Global Influence – We considered the global reputation and influence of a school by surveying industry professionals, recruiters and academics around the world, assessing the selectivity of a school in admitting applicants, and analysing the finalists at 9 prestigious international fashion prizes
• Learning Experience – We evaluated students’ experience while in school by surveying their satisfaction with the calibre of fellow students, the quality of teaching and the resources available at the institution
• Long-term Value – We assessed the students' preparedness for the real world, based on student graduation rates provided by the schools and assessing student satisfaction about employment, careers preparedness and accessibility of alumni

An overall BoF Score was given to each participating institution based on weighted performance indicators. Where insufficient data was available from student survey data or schools did not participate or provided incomplete/inaccurate data, we preferred not to rank a school/programme as opposed to providing an inaccurate assessment. As such, some reputable programmes may not appear in our ranking.

All indicators were selected to balance statistical rigour and relevance for the ranking, ensuring each added value and could help distinguish universities from each other and accurately represent the nature of the fashion industry.

Global Influence (30% overall weighting) – To what degree has an institution built a reputation that students and industry insiders respect and trust?

1. Reputation (10%) - composite score based on the total number of times the school is ranked top three in having the most creative, most business savvy, and most compelling graduates according to members of the influential BoF 500 community, HR professionals from top fashion brands and a pool of fashion school academics. A rolling average from 2015 was employed for schools that ranked last year.
2. Selectivity (10%)
   1. % Acceptance rate: proportion of admitted students vs. applicants to indicate the selectivity of programme as a measure of reputation.
   2. % Yield: proportion of admitted applicants who decided to enrol in the school as a measure of desirability
3. Awards (10%) – composite score based on the average number of students in each of the BA and MA cohort who have won or been finalists of an international fashion award (The LVMH Prize, International Talent Scout, Festival d’Hyères, International Woolmark Prize, CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, Mittelmoda, ANDAM, Vogua Italia “Who is on Next” and H&M Design Award) in the last four years.

Learning Experience (35% overall weighting) – To what degree is an institution able to provide students with the resources and learning environment conducive to a rewarding fashion education?

1. Student Body (10%)
   1. Student diversity score: numerical average value applied to each school’s student satisfaction with international diversity on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)
   2. International enrollment: Proportion of international students in class as an indication of global reach and perspective
   3. Weighted overall student quality score: numerical average value applied to student satisfaction with overall student body on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)
2. Resources  (15%) - the percentage of students that participate in work or internship placements and a numerical average value applied to student satisfaction with all resources (library/study materials, workrooms, campus/buildings, technology and IT, financial aid) on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)
3. Teaching (10%) - numerical average value applied to student satisfaction with curriculum and teaching (technical skills courses, digital and IT courses, marketing courses, business courses, environment/sustainability courses, global/diverse content, teachers) on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)

Long-term Value  (35%)– To what degree is an institution able to prepare and support students for a successful, long-term career in the fashion industry?

1. Careers (15%)
   1. Graduation rate: proportion of students enrolled who successfully complete the intended programme
   2. Weighted careers satisfaction score: numerical average value applied to student satisfaction with career services, quality of recruiters, and networking events/career fairs on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)
2. Preparedness (15%)
   1. Job within 6 months: % of alumni that obtain a job within 6 months of graduation from institution
   2. Career preparedness score: numerical average value applied to how well prepared alumni felt to join the workforce after graduating on a scale from 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied)
3. Alumni Network (5%) - numerical average value applied to satisfaction with alumni network on a scale of 1-5 (from very dissatisfied to extremely satisfied) based on accessibility of alumni, global reach and level of activity

Final Scores

An overall BoF Score was given to each participating institution based on the relative standardised overall value within the range of 40-95. All secondary category scores (Influence, Experience, Value) and tertiary sub-scores (components of each category) reflect the percentage of absolute score and weight of each performance indicator, for a maximum of 100.

The process used to compute the BoF Fashion School Ranking Score was as follows:

1. Aggregate responses from all surveys/questionnaires and review data, ensuring the number of responses reflects a normal distribution, and data meets the required level of completeness and accuracy (adjusting and/or excluding outliers and inaccurate values)
2. Process each indicator individually, producing a standardised score (t-score) for each indicator, except reputation, per school to evaluate the distance from the average using standard deviations and allowing each score to be compared against others in a statistically sound manner
3. Assign weights to each indicator to ensure that no indicator and category (influence, experience, and value) could have a disproportionate positive or negative impact on a particular school’s final score
4. Calculate an overall weighted t-score by applying the weights to each standardised indicator scores and assigning a new standardised score (total t-score / number of indicators) – in the case of missing data, the t-scores corresponding to the 25^th percentile was assigned
5. Assign an awards score value of  “1” to schools with no awards to ensure no school is penalised too harshly
6. Add reputation score based on total number of mentions
7. Standardise reputation score per school based on 25% total weight value to school(s) with fewest mention and 100% of total weight value assigned to school(s) with the most mentions
8. Standardise the rest of the tertiary scores by scaling them between 0 and total possible weight value, and calculating the percentage between the two for a maximum score of 100%
9. Calculate the BoF Score and create a numerical ranking by adding absolute scaled indicator scores and scaling the total between 40-95% to reflect the relative performance of each school on a wider range and reflect the fact that no school scored perfectly throughout

DATA AND INPUTS

The rankings are the result of a rigorous analytical exercise, incorporating multiple data sources, including direct participation from fashions schools, students and alumni:

• Fashion Schools Questionnaire: Detailed survey data and information collected directly from 54 participating fashion schools in 17 countries, across 30 data points
• Students and Alumni survey: Surveys completed by over 10,000 current students and recent alumni from fashion schools evaluating student satisfaction across 22 data points
• Global Fashion Influencers and HR professionals survey: Global reputation surveys completed by over 130 members of the influential BoF 500 community, HR professionals and academics from the global fashion school pool
• International Fashion Prize Analysis: Research and analysis on 250 recent international fashion award finalists in the last four years for the The LVMH Prize and the Festival d’Hyères in France, International Talent Scout and Mittelmoda in Italy, the International Woolmark Prize in Australia, and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in the US, ANDAM in France, Vogua Italia “Who is on Next” in Italy and H&M Design Award