Insead has topped the FT’s European Business Schools Ranking for the first time, jumping sharply from its position last year.
The French school, which has campuses near Paris and in Singapore, rose from 18th place in 2023, overtaking past winners HEC Paris and London Business School, which were pushed into second and third place respectively.
Insead had previously ranked as high as second in 2011 and third in 2021, but this was the first time the school’s position was based on all programme categories in the composite European ranking.
The assessment takes into account the relative performance of European business schools across a range of programmes that feature in separate global FT rankings each year: Masters in Management, MBA, Executive MBA and open and custom executive education courses. The European ranking is weighted to compensate, partly, for any schools that do not offer all five options.
The individual rankings are based on factors including salaries of alumni three years after completing their course, career progression, the research outputs of faculty and the diversity of staff and students.
European schools continue to stand out against rivals in North America and Asia for their pioneering role in developing the Masters in Management programme, for the high representation of women and international diversity of students and faculty, and for their work on sustainability.
However, the ranking comes at a time of tensions, with rising overall applications offset by stagnation in numbers of students globally taking up offers of places, and concerns that a number of countries including within the EU and the UK are clamping down on visas for international students.
The UK has been particularly hit since Brexit affected growth and reduced the scope for employment after graduating across the EU. Two-thirds of British business schools reported falling applications, according to the latest survey by GMAC, which administers the GMAT business school entry test. Median class sizes fell from 90 in 2023 to 68 this year.
A significant number of Asian students are remaining in their own region to study, while the US is expanding its competitive threat to Europe’s historical dominance of pre-experience, lower-cost, one-year masters in management programmes. The economic strength of the US continues to attract students from abroad, compared with more sluggish growth in the EU.
However, David Bach, the new president of IMD in Switzerland, says: “Europe’s undeniable strengths in competitiveness, talent, sustainability and innovation can, when integrated within a unified capital market, radically transform its economic trajectory.”
Insead ranks top among European business schools overall, as well as for both its signature MBA programme and custom executive education courses tailored to the needs of corporate clients, where it is placed ahead of Iese of Spain and IMD. Besides Fontainebleau and Singapore, the school also has offices in Abu Dhabi and San Francisco.
The ranking of 100 European business schools includes 27 based in France and 18 in the UK, ahead of other countries with multiple institutions ranked, including Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.
The dozen top schools in the European ranking all specialise exclusively or primarily in business, although Bocconi in Italy and the University of St Gallen in Switzerland both offer other degrees, such as law. Saïd Business School in Oxford, ranked 13th, is a far more recent addition to a university founded nearly 1,000 years ago.
Among the ranked schools, 88 have fewer female than male faculty, with just four employing equal numbers and an average for all institutions of 37 per cent women. The highest is 57 per cent at Essca School of Management in France, while Germany’s HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and the University of Zurich in Switzerland score lowest at 17 per cent each.
IMD, in Lausanne, has the most internationally diverse faculty, with 98 per cent holding other citizenships. The average is 53 per cent, with University of Porto — FEP | PBS the least diverse, with 1 per cent of faculty from overseas.
Once adjusted for international purchasing power parity, alumni of the Executive MBA at Koç University’s Graduate School of Business in Turkey earn most among graduates of a single-school EMBA in the European ranking, at an average reported salary of $379,000 a year. They are followed by those at ESCP, which has six campuses across Europe, and Skema of France. Alumni of the Trium joint Executive MBA run by HEC Paris, NYU Stern and LSE — one of two EMBAs contributing to HEC’s European placing — reported earning an average of $421,699.
Among MBA alumni, Bocconi graduates come top for salaries, with a mean of more than $202,000, ahead of Insead and London Business School. The biggest reported salary increase is for alumni of Esade, up by 151 per cent from before the degree to three years after completing it.
For Masters in Management programmes, St Gallen of Switzerland was top overall, ahead of HEC Paris and Insead. Alumni of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and St Gallen both reported average salaries above $140,000. The biggest salary increase was for graduates of Luiss in Italy, followed by Católica Porto Business School in Portugal and IQS — Universitat Ramon Llull in Spain.
