Management schools: France reaches top position in two rankings

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Two international rankings published a few days apart confirm the French excellence in terms of management and business schools. Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and the Financial Times (FT) published two rankings of Master’s degrees in management and place France in the top position: 17 institutions are included in the Top 100 of QS and 21 in the FT’s!

2022 QS ranking

On September 9, Quacquarelli Symonds published its annual ranking (2022) of the best management and business schools in the world. The assessment takes into account the most prestigious 286 MBAs worldwide and a series of other Master’s courses.

HEC, first management school in the world

In the 2022 best Master’s course in management category, HEC Paris won the 1st place worldwide. ESSEC (3rd rank worldwide) and INSEAD (4th rank) are the next French institutions. In total, 17 French institutions are included in the Top 100 of this ranking, including 5 in the Top 10 and 11 in the Top 50. Farther in this ranking, there is ESCP (7th) and EM Lyon Business School (10th), with EDHEC (14th), CEMS (16th), SKEMA (23th), Grenoble Ecole de Management (39th), KEDGE (41th) and Audencia (50th) in their wake.

Employability and career criteria

The QS method relies on several professional criteria, such as employability and wage of young graduates, their career development and, in a way, the “return on investment” of their training course. In addition to the criteria about the student, the institution itself is also assessed, through for example its reputation (research and academic), the diversity of its recruitment of students, but also the diversity of its teaching staff, in terms of gender and nationalities represented.

2021 FT ranking

On September 12, it was the Financial Times’ turn to publish the 2021 edition of its traditional MiM (Masters in Management) ranking, designed using 124 programmes offered at global scale.

Four French institutions in the Top 10

As the Financial Times’ ranking reveals, the spearhead includes four French Masters’ courses in management in the Top 10, from three the year before, a figure that show how favourable the ranking is towards France. In second place worldwide is HEC Paris, followed by ESSEC (6th), ESCP (7th) and EDHEC Business School (10th).

Deeper in the ranking, in the Top 50, France is still well represented with 11 schools ranked. In addition to the aforementioned business schools are EM Lyon (21th), SKEMA (22th), NEOMA (30th), IESEG (34th), EM Grenoble, Excelia (42th ex aequo) and Audencia (44th). In total, in the Top 100, are 21 French masters’ courses assessed as the best in the world.

Dual methodology

The FT ranking relies on about 15 criteria resulting both from data analysis and stories from former students (7,400 this year). Alumni stories include issues in relation with professional experience: international experience (a criterion less important this year, due to the pandemic), average wage three years after graduation or career advancement. Additional more social criteria provided by the institutions themselves are used to complete the score, including: diversity of the teaching staff and students in terms of gender and nationality, and international scope of programmes.