More than one-third of them like to attend conferences and lectures, while almost 30% taken part in executive MBA programs or further education classes.

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Another benefit of the modular delivery format favored by the new wave of executive MBA programs is that distance from the campus is no longer an issue.

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Applications for part-time and executive MBA (EMBA) programs also reported increased demand, albeit not so strongly as before.

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The league table is officially known as a 'meta ranking', bringing in statistics gathered from the London-based newspaper's five more specialized rankings compiled earlier in the year, for global MBAs, executive education courses, masters degrees in management and Executive MBA (EMBA) programs.

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Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, for example, tops the latest full-time MBA rankings of BusinessWeek and the EIU, and heads the FT's executive education open programs.

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