A study of some of the world's top business schools sheds light, it says, on how big an impact MBAs really have on salaries and the time it takes to recoup the cost.

A survey of MBA programmes in some of the world’s top business schools shows a gap of as wide as 40 per cent between schools in the fees to enter a programme, but only a 9 per cent spread between the salary impact of having such a qualification, raising questions about value for money.

That conclusion is reached by salary benchmarking website Emolument.com and it suggests that the allegedly superior earning power stemming from a famous MBA programme is not necessarily matched by its cost and return. It said the fee difference has a "huge" effect on the length of time required to win back the cost of doing an MBA.

The organisation analysed data, it said, from 339 bankers working in London and data on tuition fees came from university websites or from the Economist magazine, it said. Average salaries for front-office professionals related to those with 5 to 10 years of experience.

Such figures will stir interest in the wealth management industry, as there is a handful – relatively speaking – of MBA programmes focused on the sector. (For a roundup of post-grad courses in Europe, Asia and North America, see here. This publication invites readers to come forward with new courses if these have been overlooked.)

Bankers coming from the Chicago Booth MBA programme earned an average salary of £127,000; the MBA had an “impact” on that salary of +£24,000; it took three years for an entrant on the programme to recoup the cost in tuition fees of £71,000. At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, London Business School MBA graduates had an average salary of £118,000; it took 4.5 years to get the tuition fee cost back of £67,000.

Second to Chicago Booth is the Harvard Business School in terms of its salary-boosting effect: bankers from that programme had an average salary of £125,000, getting a boost of £22,000, and taking 3.5 years to recoup the cost.

Other schools ranked in the survey are Europe’s INSEAD, Oxford Said and New York Stern. While many of the schools have departments in other parts of the world, there was no specific Asia-headquartered business school in the top rankings shown by the survey.

“Top MBAs have very similar impacts on bankers' salaries: there is only a 9 per cent gap between Chicago Booth's best-paying MBA and that of the London Business School,” Emolument.com said.

This publication is in contact with Chicago Booth for a comment on the data and may update in due course. It had not responded at the time of going to press.

While its figures raise questions about the financial risk/rewards of MBAs, Emolument.com said that “beyond the short term value of an MBA (vice presidents with an MBA earn 7 per cent more than non MBAs), the immeasurable value of an MBA comes from the network it provides, which pays off throughout a career”.

“It is a tricky choice for bankers embarking on an MBA programme: they leave as associates and come back as associates while their peers who staid on have more often than not already graduated to VP. The decision to take an MBA has to stem from a long-term view that is not solely monetary, but a desire to enrich one's network, broaden horizons and open the door to opportunities which may well veer off the initial course,” Thomas Drewry, chief executive at Emolument.com, said.

Emolument.com was launched in 2012, stating it was the “only real-time bonus and salary benchmarking site dedicated to finance and other professional services industries”. It says it receives more than 49,000 contributions from individuals at over 18,500 institutions. Data on salary and bonuses are sent to the organisation anonymously, it says.