A total of 90 schools have made it to the prominent Financial Times list, with French, British and Spanish institutions dominating the top.
France’s HEC Paris has been named Europe’s best business school, according to a ranking by the Financial Times, followed by the London Business School and Spain’s IESE Business School.
IESE managed to climb from sixth place in last year’s Financial Times European Business School Rankings, yet overall, the top of the list shows little change compared to 2022: France’s ESCP, created in 1819 as the first-ever business school, took third place then but this year has to 4th place.
Nevertheless, it would have taken the top spot had it been judged solely on its executive MBA programme.Â
In the 20th ranking of its kind, the Financial Times not only rated what it judges to be the best business schools in Europe overall, but also ranked the various programmes each institution has to offer.
In the final assessment of each school, MBA, EMBA, and MiM (Master in Management) rankings all contribute, with each programme accounting for 25%. The remaining 25% is allocated for custom and open executive education programmes.
The FT uses a variety of factors to judge the various courses of study seen in Europe’s business schools, including career progression, salary expectations, and the extent to which topics related to climate change are factored into teaching.
It bases its survey on voluntary participation by the schools themselves and their alumni.
HEC Paris provides a MiM programme with alumni reporting the highest average salaries in Europe. However, the institution’s EMBA pay is ranked fourth best, and post-MBA pay is the sixth highest in Europe.
France is the most widely represented country on the list: 23 French schools appear, with five in the top 10. Next is the UK with 15 schools in the rankings, followed by Germany in the bronze position with eight.
Spain and Portugal have five schools each on the list, while other institutions from Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Turkey, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are also among the 90 featured.