The Financial Times 2024 MiM Ranking: Europe Holds on to Top Spots

The Financial Times (FT) has released its rankings of the 100 best Masters in Management (MiM) programs for 2024.

As they have done for years, HEC Paris and the University of St. Gallen jostle for top spot. This year, the Financial Times ranks the University of St. Gallen in first place and puts HEC Paris in second, a reversal of 2023’s order. This is the 13th time the Swiss business school has gained first place. 

In third is INSEAD, a new addition to the rankings, while Edhec Business School climbs to fourth place from 11th. 

Clear Admit Co-founder, Graham Richmond, describes the “arrival of INSEAD” as “of particular note,” since “their MiM program graduated its first class in 2021.” He adds that the school “has made a big splash with their inaugural appearance at #3 overall. This should be no surprise in light of the strength of the school’s MBA offerings, but it is certainly a strong showing for a new entrant.”

Richmond goes on to comment on the location of the MiM programs included in the ranking. 

“Many may wonder,” he says, “why there are almost no U.S. schools included (just 2 out of the 100 ranked for the list). This is especially head-scratching when one considers that high quality MiMs are indeed on offer from the likes of Duke Fuqua, Northwestern Kellogg, Michigan Ross, MIT Sloan, Georgetown McDonough, Cornell Johnson. The answer, it seems, is that most U.S. schools aren’t yet participating in the ranking – taking a pass on furnishing the FT will all of the required data. Of course, given that Chicago Booth, Carnegie Mellon, and Emory Goizueta are all entering the MiM space, it’s safe to say that we may soon see US schools taking part.”

The Top 20 Schools

The top 20 schools in this year’s ranking (with last year’s rankings included for reference) are as follows:

The locations of these top 20 schools reiterate Richmond’s remark on the absence of U.S. programs. “Once again,” he comments, “we see the European Masters in Management offerings dominating this global ranking – holding 18 of the top 20 spots. This is consistent with the fact that Europe has been offering MiMs for many years now and holds a market position that is equivalent to the kind of dominance we see from U.S. schools in MBA rankings.”

The highest-ranked non-European business school is Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Antai, at number five.  

Ranking Methodology of the Financial Times 2024 MiM Ranking

In order to be eligible to participate in the ranking process, business school’s MiM programs must be full-time, cohort-based, directed at students with little or no work experience and accredited by either AACSB or Equis. In 2024, 142 MiM programs were eligible. 

The FT ranks the top 100 programs using 19 differently-weighted criteria – the highest of which being “weighted salary (US$),” making up 16% of the ranking. Alumni-related criteria contribute together 56 per cent of the ranking. Two surveys were used to collect the information necessary for ranking – one which the business schools completed, and one which alumni (who graduated in 2021) completed. Response rate requirements for alumni surveys are usually 20% and at least 20 surveys; however the FT considered schools with a lower response rate due to the pandemic. 

You can read more about the ranking methodology here.