The Global MBA Ranking from The Financial Times (FT) rolled out in February, but December is for European business schools and ranking the top 100 for their MBA, MiM, EMBA, and executive education programming.
Here is a quick look at the top 10 of The Financial Times 2025 European Business Schools rankings:
| Ranking | School |
|---|---|
| 1 | INSEAD |
| 2 | HEC Paris |
| 3 | London Business School |
| 4 | ESCP Business School |
| 5 | Iese Business School |
| 6 | SDA Bocconi |
| 7 | Essec Business School |
| 8 | University of St. Gallen |
| 9 | Edhec Business School |
| 10 | EMLyon Business School |
INSEAD took the top spot again followed by fellow titans, HEC Paris and London Business School. ESCP and Iese round out the top five of The Financial Times 2025 European Business School rankings.
“The FT’s European Business School ranking is essentially a measure of institutional breadth and balance across MBA, MiM, EMBA, and executive education. That’s why global powerhouses like INSEAD and London Business School rise to the top—they’re excellent across the board,” says Clear Admit Co-Founder, Graham Richmond.
Based in Italy, SDA Bocconi kicks off the second half of the top 10. Essec has multiple campuses (France, Singapore, Morroco) and occupies spot #7. The University of St. Gallen, headquartered in Switzerland, lands in eighth place. Six of the top 10 European business schools have campuses in France, including the last two of the top 10, Edhec and emlyon. And, location did lead to some interesting highlights–FT reported that their data show that alumni of European b-schools earn less on average three years post-graduation than their global peers; among European graduates, Swiss-based ones earned the most.
“The ranking,” he says, “can also obscure the true strength of individual programs – and most candidates are only applying to one specific program, not four at once. For instance, a candidate applying solely to an MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School, for example, might be misled by that school’s overall institutional position (#22 in this ranking).” Similarly, Esade, ESMT Berlin, IMD and Oxford Saïd run 11 through 14 in the ranking. IE Business School in Spain landed just above Cambridge Judge at #21. Read about the FT methodology here.
“As always, rankings are a useful data point,” Richmond cautions, “but not a substitute for program-level research and personal fit.”
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