Darden School of Business tops the Financial Times 2010 ranking of open-enrolment programme providers. After four years of coming second or third, based on data from both programme participants and business schools, the Virginia-based school returns to the position it last held in 2005.

Dan McCusker, a senior manager who attended the executive programme at Darden in June 2009, rates the experience as among the best of his academic career. “Twenty-six years as an officer in the US Air Force and five years in industry, and this is by far the best school I have ever attended,” he says.

Darden's improvement comes after programme participants ranked the school first on eight of the 10 feedback criteria, including three of the most important: the design of the programme; the extent to which new skills were relevant and easy to implement; and the attainment of main learning aims.