It is tough at the top, but the business schools at the summit of the 2011 executive MBA ranking have seen off the competition for the third year running. The leading handful of programmes has maintained its top-five status – and the number one EMBA remains the same.

Topping the table of 100 global management programmes for senior executives is the collaboration between the Kellogg school, near Chicago, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which chalks up a hat-trick of titles in the process.

The Trium programme, a link-up between HEC Paris, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Stern School of Business at New York University, takes second spot, -relegating the Columbia and London Business School offering to third place.