The leading French b-school is followed by HEC Paris, which has spent the last five years in first place. In third place is London Business School (LBS), followed by Spain’s IESE Business School.
INSEAD is one of five French schools in the top 10. ESCP Business School falls one spot this year to place fifth, while EDHEC Business School is in seventh place and ESSEC Business School is in eighth.
INSEAD’s leap to first place in the 2024 ranking can be attributed to the performance of the school’s EMBA and MiM programs. Both programs were excluded from the ranking in 2023, previously bringing the school’s overall score down.
While INSEAD already ranked first in Europe for its MBA in 2023, its strong performance across all categories in 2024—including first place for the MiM and fifth place for the EMBA—bring it to the overall top spot.
Rounding out the top five business schools alongside INSEAD are HEC Paris, London Business School, IESE Business School, and ESCP Business School. SDA Bocconi takes sixth place in 2024, just missing out on the top five.
The FT European ranking is based on the combined performance of Europe’s leading schools across the FT’s individual program rankings. MBA, EMBA, and MiM rankings each comprise 25% of a school’s overall performance, while executive education and custom programs make up the remaining 25% for schools that have offer those program types.
Best business schools in Europe: Top-ranked MBAs, EMBAs & MiMs
French business schools perform well across the FT ranking. Among the 100 European schools taking part—up from 90 last year—27 are in France. In total, 18 schools are based in the UK, Germany has seven, while Portugal has six and Spain has five.
Despite not making the top five, SDA Bocconi remains near the top partly due to its leading average MBA alumni salary of $202,534—making it the only MBA in Europe where grads go on to earn above $200k. INSEAD’s MBA ($198,904) is second, and LBS ($192,331) is third.
Europe is renowned for the strength of its Master in Management programs. Across the FT’s Global MiM Ranking published in September of this year, the top 10 consisted almost entirely of European business schools.
In the European MiM Ranking released as part of the overall FT list, University of St.Gallen ranks first, followed by HEC Paris and INSEAD in third. In the EMBA ranking, ESCP claims the top spot, followed by Spain’s IE Business School and HEC Paris’ joint program with LSE and NYU Stern School of Business.
READ: Financial Times Full-Time MBA Ranking
©INSEAD/Facebook
Best European business school: Diversity
The FT European list ranked business schools according to their diversity, including gender balance and the proportion of international faculty.
For faculty diversity, France’s IESEG School of Management and NEOMA Business School are among the top performers. IESEG boasts a 50:50 gender split among faculty as well as 93% international faculty. The faculty at NEOMA comprises a 49:51 gender split and 83% hail from international backgrounds. Switzerland’s IMD Business School leads the way with 98% international faculty.
France’s Burgundy School of Business and Grenoble Ecole de Management also report having gender parity among the faculty.
In contrast, the University of Zurich has the lowest share of female faculty, at 17%. Portugal’s University of Porto – FEP has the lowest international faculty with 1%.
READ: Financial Times Master in Management Ranking
Best business schools in Europe: Applications on the rise
The FT ranking comes amid reports of increasing business school applications on a global scale, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
The recently published Application Trends Survey revealed a 20% growth in applications for business masters programs in Europe (excluding the UK), with significant jumps in both domestic (39%) and international (35%) applications.
