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The ranking of global full-time MBA programs by QS Quacquarelli Symonds is dominated by big-name US business schools, with The Wharton School rising to second and Harvard Business School dropping to third—a reverse of last year’s ranking.
Having the world’s best Alumni Outcomes and second-best Employability score explains Stanford’s continuous success in these rankings.
The UK’s London Business School (LBS) and France’s HEC Paris make up the world’s five best business schools, according to QS.
LBS securing the top European business school position is largely down to it having the third highest score for Employability and Alumni Outcomes, and ranking among the top 10 for Thought Leadership.
Top 20 MBA programs
The US and Europe take every spot in the top 20. As well as taking the top three spots, US school’s MIT Sloan School of Management and Columbia Business School feature in the top 10, in sixth and seventh place respectively.
Half of the top 10 are European business schools. HEC Paris and London Business School are joined by Spain’s IE Business School in eighth. IESE Business School—also in Spain—and University of Cambridge Judge Business School are joint in ninth.
Cambridge Judge is the second UK top-20 school and rises from 12th to eighth this year, making it the biggest gainer among the top 20. Most business schools remain in similar positions compared with the 2023 ranking.
Another mover, INSEAD, has fallen out of the top 10, coming in 11th place.
QS MBA Rankings 2024: Top 20
Winners and losers outside of the top 20
Elsewhere, the best MBA outside of Europe and the US is Asia’s National University of Singapore (NUS), which climbs to joint 24th with Copenhagen Business School.
NUS scores will in Employability, achieving Asia’s highest score. It is also among the region’s top performers in Alumni Outcomes and Student Diversity.
There are only two other Asia-Pacific full-time MBA programs ranked by QS among the global top 30: China’s Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and Australia’s Melbourne Business School (MBS).
As China’s highest-ranked full-time MBA program, according to QS, Tsinghua rises one place to 28th. It is Asia’s second highest-ranked MBA due to its Thought Leadership, Employability and Return on Investment.
Meanwhile, Australia’s MBS ranks 30th this year, a slight dip from placing 27th in the 2023 QS ranking. Coming in just behind is another Australian business school: the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Other notable performers are Rotman School of Management in Toronto, Canada’s highest ranked full-time MBA in 40th; EGADE Business School in Mexico, which ranks 62nd, taking Latin America’s highest position; and American University of Beirut’s Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) in Lebanon, which ranks 68th globally, up 11 from last year.
QS vs Financial Times, US News Rankings
You should never take one ranking as fact. Instead, compare MBA rankings and track a business school’s performance over time.
The QS ranking is less well-known in the industry when compared with MBA rankings published by the Financial Times (FT) and US News.
However, the QS ranking does include all the elite M7 business schools. This year the FT ranking surprised many by not including Wharton, a previous holder of the top spot on several occasions, due to an insufficient number of alumni responses.
Rankings also differ in methodologies, which mean results vary. US News ranks University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University School of Management in first and second while the QS ranking places them outside the top 10, ranking 14th and 12th respectively.
INSEAD, which comes second in the FT ranking, ranks 11th in the QS ranking. Despite Stanford topping the QS ranking, it comes fourth in the FT and sixth in US News.
QS MBA Ranking methodology
Data for the QS MBA ranking is collected via surveys of employers, academics, and business school staff.
MBA programs are ranked based on five key metrics given different weighting: Employability (40%); Return on Investment (20%); Entrepreneurship and Alumni Outcomes (15%); Thought Leadership (15%); Class & Faculty Diversity (10%).
Employability is the central metric for the QS MBA ranking, meaning the higher a program is ranked the better your post-MBA jobs prospects are, according to QS.
To be included in the QS MBA ranking, business schools must be accredited by either AACSB, AMBA, or EFMD (EQUIS).
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