The latest QS Business Master’s Rankings 2025 confirms the excellence of France

Students

The new QS Business Master’s ranking 2025, which focuses on Master’s degrees in business, gives a list of the best business schools by type of Master’s degree. Seven training courses programmes offered by French institutions feature in the Top 3 for four of these specialities: business analysis, finance, management and marketing. In total, France has nearly 90 programmes ranked in this list, with HEC and ESSEC coming out on top.

The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) Business Master ranking “highlights the best graduate master' programmes around the world”. For this ranking, specifically focused on business and management, QS analysed more than 200 programmes in its 2025 edition according to some fifteen criteria. As in the more general QS rankings, criteria taken into account were: the reputation of graduates among employers, the career development of graduates, the quality of teaching and research at the institution, the “return on investment” for students, as well as gender diversity and the level of internationalisation among both students and teaching staff.

Masters in marketing: two French schools in the Top 3 and nine in the Top 50

“These rankings are designed to help you identify the best Masters in Business that match your career ambitions”. This is the aim of this specialised ranking, aimed primarily at students, which shows France’s dominant position in this field.

In the Masters in Marketing section, France takes the top two places worldwide, with HEC in first place and ESSEC in second. Nine additional French institutions are present in the ranking:

ESCP Business School (4th worldwide);
emlyon Business School (8th);
EDHEC (10th);
SKEMA Business School (17th);
Audencia Business School (19th);
GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management (24th);
IESEG (43th);
KEDGE Business School (47th);
TBS Education, business and management school in Toulouse (49th).

A total of 16 French institutions are ranked in the Masters in Marketing section.

Masters in management: 10 French institutions in the Top 50, including on the leading podium

And in the case of Masters in management, France is on the first step of the podium with HEC (Master in strategic management) and ESSEC (Master in strategy management of international business) third. Eight additional institutions are ranked in the Top 50:

INSEAD (6th worldwide);
ESCP Business School (8th);
CEMS, Global Alliance in Management Education, international school delivering “supranational degrees” (10th);
emlyon Business School (17th);
EDHEC Business School (21st);
SKEMA Business School (30th);
GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management (36th);
Audencia (40th).

In total, no less than 31 French institutions are ranked in this category.

Masters in finance: one school in the Top 3, five in the Top 50

In this speciality, France takes 2nd place worldwide with HEC and its Masters in International Finance. Five additional institutions are also in the Top 50:

ESSEC (7th worldwide);
ESCP Business School (15th);
emlyon Business School (19th);
EDHEC Business School (25th);
SKEMA Business School (35th).

In total, 17 French schools are ranked in this speciality.

Masters in business analysis: two schools in the Top 3, three in the Top 50

France also stands out in this category, with two groups of French schools ranked ex-aequo in 3rd position worldwide: ESSEC/Centrale Supélec (Masters in Data Science and Business Analysis) and HEC/Ecole Polytechnique (Masters in Data Science and Technology for Business).

Next in the Top 50 in this speciality are three additional French institutions:

ESCP Business School (9th worldwide);
EDHEC Business School (28th);
emlyon Business School (29th).

In total, 12 French schools are present in this speciality.

Finally, in a final speciality, the Masters in supply chain management, although France does not feature in the Top 3, it nevertheless has six schools ranked in the Top 50: