The 2018 Financial Times ranking of top European business schools was just released. After an in-depth review of schools across Europe, FT completed its list of the 95 schools including 25 in France and 22 in the UK, seven in Germany, and a handful in all other countries.
When looking at this ranking, it’s important to pay attention to the methodology and what it indicates. In this case, the methodology includes reviewing all business school offerings, not just MBA programs. In addition, the ranking revealed some fascinating insight into business school success. Surprisingly, UK business schools have performed well post-Brexit thanks to a decrease in the value of the pound making tuition cheaper. Also, the new U.S. policies toward international students are also making the UK a more attractive option.
Inside the FT Ranking
But what does all this mean when it comes to the ranking itself?
“The tricky thing about the FT‘s European Business Schools ranking is that unlike most b-school rankings it combines the MBA, EMBA, MiM, and executive education offerings of each institution to come up with an overall rank,” said Clear Admit’s co-founder Graham Richmond, who has years of experience as an admissions counselor at The Wharton School, where he also earned his MBA. “While this is interesting as a means to understand the breadth and consistency of an institution, the truth of the matter is that most candidates looking at rankings will reasonably only pursue one of the degree programs on offer. As such, we strongly recommend filtering the rankings by the program-type you are targeting (the FT, fortunately, makes simple enough via an interactive table).”
10 Top European Business Schools Overall
In spite of that, it’s still important to take a look at the ten top European business schools according to the Financial Times. These schools demonstrate a diverse range of expertise and sought-after learning experiences through discussions, group projects, and extracurricular. Here’s who made it into the top ten this year:
- London Business School
- HEC Paris
- INSEAD
- University of St. Gallen
- IESE Business School
- Universitá Bocconi
- IMD Business School
- Essec Business School
- Rotterdam School of Management
- University of Oxford: Saïd
Top 10 European MBA Programs
Of more value, were the MBA-specific rankings outlined by the Financial Times.
“Here at Clear Admit, we are most keen to track the full-time MBA rankings, so we looked at how things stacked up there,” explained Graham. “There were no real surprises across the top-10, with INSEAD, LBS, and IESE holding the top three spots, and the usual suspects (Cambridge, ESADE, IMD, Oxford, Bocconi, and Manchester) rounding out the top-10. It’s also noteworthy that many of the UK-based programs (Imperial, Cass, Cranfield, Warwick, Durham, Lancaster, and Edinburgh) also earned spots in the top-20, leaving the UK with ten of the top-20 programs in total. As the FT‘s commentary points out, the UK would appear to remain a great market for management education—even in the face of Brexit.”
The Financial Times ranking also broke down the best schools according to Executive MBA offerings and Masters in Management offerings (HEC Paris offering the top EMBA and the University of St Gallen offering the top Masters in Management program). So, no matter what type of program interests you in Europe, FT has a ranking you can follow.
To see the full Financial Times ranking for top European business schools, head on over to the complete ranking list now.
