The QS World University Rankings: Global MBA, Master’s and Career Specialisation 2023 are now live!
QS Global MBA Rankings 2023
QS presents the 20th edition of its Global MBA Rankings – analysing the performance of 300 business programmes across 47 countries and territories to determine the world’s best MBA programmes.
With the highest overall score of 93.6, Stanford Graduate School of Business takes the top spot in the rankings for another year. Despite having achieved a higher overall score last year, the institution still excels in a range of indicators, including Alumni Outcomes (98.3) and Employability score (98.5).
Harvard Business School retains second place for another year with an overall score of 92.4 – a two position increase from 2022. While Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania drops one position this year, they secure the top performing score among all institutions for Thought Leadership (98.9). London Business School ranks fifth, one rank higher than the previous year, improving its Employability score with a 98.8 – the highest awarded in this category.
While the US continues to dominate the rankings, taking 12 of the top 20 positions, Europe is excelling in certain indicators. Europe represents the location with the highest number of business schools achieving perfect scores for Return On Investment (100), including HEC Paris, SDA Bocconi School of Management, ESCP Business School, Mannheim Business School and WHU (Otto Beisheim School of Management). Europe’s best MBA programme is offered by HEC Paris which came fourth overall.
Access the full QS Global MBA Rankings 2023
QS Business Master’s Rankings
The separate QS Business Master’s Rankings evaluate the overall performance of five different specialised master’s degree programmes across five subjects: management, finance, business analytics and supply chain management.
Management
For another year in a row, HEC Paris takes first place for its MSc in Strategic Management – achieving high scores for more than one metric including Employability (99.3), Alumni Outcomes (100), Return On Investment (99.9) and Thought Leadership (98.8). This year saw a switch of second and third places, with London Business School now in third place and ESSEC Business School now in second.
Finance
In these rankings, we see a change to the top position as HEC Paris overtakes Oxford (Saïd) achieving an overall score of 96.5 for its Master of International Finance, leaving Oxford (Saïd)’s MSc Financial Economics in second position. However, Oxford (Saïd) achieves a perfect score of 100 in both Employability and Alumni Outcomes. Also receiving a perfect score for Alumni Outcomes is MIT (Sloan School of Management)’s Master of Finance and UCLA (Anderson)’s Master of Financial Engineering which climbs from eighth to fifth.
Business Analytics
First place for another year goes to MIT (Sloan) for its Master of Business Analytics – UCLA (Anderson) retains second place. These institutions also share the highest Alumni Outcomes scores of 100. Third place goes to École Polytechnique-HEC and fourth to ESSEC-CentraleSupélec. Polytechnique-HEC was awarded the highest score in Employability – followed closely by MIT (Sloan) with 99.6 and IE Business School Madrid with 97.4.
Marketing
HEC Paris takes the first place in this ranking with its MSc in Marketing. Now in second place, ESSEC Business School makes a remarkable improvement of two positions since last year – ESCP Business School also moving up to take its previous spot (4th). Both HEC Paris and Columbia University receive perfect scores of 100 for Alumni Outcomes. It is noteworthy that in these master’s rankings, only two institutions achieved overall scores in the 90’s: HEC Paris (93.4) and ESSEC Business School (90.7).
Supply Chain Management
There’s been no change among the top three position in this year’s rankings with MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business and Michigan (Ross School of Business) taking first, second and third position respectively. Coming in fourth and fifth place for another year is Erasmus (RSM) and USC (Marshall).
MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics dominate three performing indicators: Employability (98.3), Alumni Outcomes (100) and Thought Leadership (96.6).
Access the full QS Business Master’s Rankings 2023
QS MBA by Career Specialisation Rankings 2023
The QS MBA by Career Specialisation Rankings provide insight into the world’s top business schools for seven different specialist areas of employment: consulting, entrepreneurship, finance, information management, marketing, operations management and technology.
Consulting
Receiving a score of 96.8 in this year’s rankings, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania makes an impressive jump from sixth to first place – previous first place holders INSEAD now sitting in ninth. Second place is awarded to MIT (Sloan) with a 96.4 – moving one place up from last year. Third position is now held by the University of Chicago (Booth School of Business) – a significant improvement for the institution who previously ranked seventh. Harvard Business School, who previously ranked 12th, now sits in fourth place – another vast improvement.
Entrepreneurship
Stanford Graduate School of Business takes the reigns for another year running, followed by Harvard Business School who hopped from third place to second this year. Another impressive achievement comes from University of Cambridge (Judge Business School) who now owns fourth position in the rankings – previously eighth. The metric that attained the highest number of perfect scores was Employability, with Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, Oxford (Saïd), INSEAD and London Business School, all achieving this score.
Finance
First place is retained by Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who also ranked first in Career Strength (99.4) and Research Strength (100). Stanford Graduate School of Business loses second place to Harvard Business School and now sits in third. In fourth and fifth place is Columbia Business School and NYU Stern School of Business respectively.
Information Management
In this year’s first place was retained by MIT (Sloan) – while Harvard Business School rose from fourth to second position this year. Stanford Graduate School of Business now earns third place, previously seventh. The Employer Strength metric possesses the most institutions with a perfect score of 100, including Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Oxford (Saïd) INSEAD and London Business School.
Marketing
First place stays with Stanford Graduate School of Business for another year, followed by an improved jump from fifth to second by USC (Marshall). In third place is HEC Paris who makes an amazing fourteen step improvement. Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and USC (Marshall) are amongst the schools receiving the highest in Career Strength and Employer Strength indicators.
Operations Management
Erasmus University (Rotterdam School of Management) takes the lead with an impressive jump from twelfth place last year – dominating in Career Strength (96) and Research Strength (98.9). Michigan State (Eli Broad College of Business) retains second place and Pennsylvania State University (Smeal College of Business) moves from seventh to third. Politecnico di Milano follows at fourth, moving one step up the rankings.
Technology
In this category, Stanford Graduate School of Business takes the first spot, moving one step up from last year with an overall score of 94 – swapping with MIT (Sloan) who now sits in second. Oxford (Saïd) who were previously ninth have now moved to third while HEC Paris sits in fourth – a remarkable improvement from their 22nd position last year. Stanford Graduate School of Business, London Business School, Oxford, INSEAD and Harvard Business school were all awarded perfect scores (100) for Employer Strength.
Access the full QS MBA by Career Specialisation Rankings 2023