Financial Times Releases 2015 European Business School Rankings
Financial Times has published its 2015 European Business School rankings. London Business School has grabbed the number one spot, followed by HEC Paris, INSEAD, University of St. Gallen and IE Business School to round out the top five.
The full list includes 85 schools and can be found on the Financial Times website.
Because they combine data from Financial Times‘ MBA, Executive MBA, Masters in Management and non-degree executive education programs, the European Business School rankings aim to measure not just overall education quality but also how well-rounded and broad the offerings at each business school are.
Therefore, Financial Times releases the European Business School rankings at the end of the year as a summary of how schools have fared across the board in the more specific rankings of particular programs.
This year, British business schools gained the most ground in the rankings, but France remained the country with the strongest representation among the 85 ranked schools.
The top ten included two British schools (London Business School, Said Business School), two French schools (HEC Paris, INSEAD), two Swiss schools (University of St. Gallen, IMD), three Spanish schools (IE Business School, ESADE Business School, IESE Business School) and one Italian school (Bocconi University).
In calculating the program-specific rankings the European Business School rankings are based on (MBA, Executive MBA, etc.), Financial Times looks at factors including alumni income, faculty research, cost of attendance and diversity.
Since the European Business School rankings aggregate rankings for individual courses of study, the schools that perform best are those with strong offerings in multiple areas.
For example, among European business schools London Business School came in 1st in the MBA rankings, 10th in the Executive MBA rankings and 5th in the Masters in Management rankings.
Beyond the question of how different programs stack up with each other, Financial Times‘ 2015 report also notes several promising trends among European business schools as a whole.
For instance, Financial Times Business Education Editor Della Bradshaw argues that European business schools have an edge over their North American counterparts in terms of international connections and may also have more students actively involved in entrepreneurial endeavors.
However, seven of the top ten schools in Financial Times‘ 2015 MBA rankings were North American, suggesting these advantages on the part of European schools reflect a difference in emphasis rather than overall quality.
For more information on the methodology used in the European Business School rankings as well as the rankings for specific areas of study, see Financial Times‘ rankings page. Financial Times is due to release their 2016 MBA rankings in January.