London Business School Tops Business Subject Rankings: MBA News

Having topped the regional MBA rankings for Europe at the end of last year, London Business School has further reason to celebrate after being named number one in the world at master’s level in the field of business and management.

The accolade comes with today’s release of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015, in which business and management is one of six new disciplines to come under the microscope of the QS subject rankings methodology – one which draws on the views of thousands of employers and academics worldwide, as well as on an analysis of a database holding millions of research papers and citations.

The ranking considers pre-experience master’s programs in the field of business and management, such as the increasingly popular MIM (master’s in management) degree, as well as the full-time MBA programs on which the annual QS Global 200 Business Schools Report is based.

Indeed, while US schools are home to many of the world’s best MBA programs, European schools tend to lead the pack in terms of non-MBA master’s study. This might explain why the inaugural business and management entry in the QS subject rankings yields a top 10 that is split 6:4 in Europe’s favor.

Business and management – QS subject rankings top 10

1. London Business School (United Kingdom)

2. Harvard University (United States)

3, INSEAD (France)

4. Stanford University (United States)

5. University of Pennsylvania (United States)

6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, United States)

7. Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Italy)

8. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

9. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, United Kingdom)

10. Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)

London Business School’s position at the helm of this ranking comes largely as a result of its formidable academic reputation – the opinions of more than 7,000 academics were polled in this subject area, alongside a little under 3,000 employers of business and management graduates.

One of three UK representatives in this top 10, London Business School has offered a master’s in management program since 2009. Europe’s three other top-10 members all represent different nations – France, Italy and Denmark. The majority of these six also feature in the top 10 of the latest QS MBA rankings for Europe, with the exception of Copenhagen Business School – an institution that has far more MSc than MBA students among a student body of roughly 20,000 – and LSE, which simply has no full-time MBA, although its management department does have executive MBA options.

The four US members in this top-10 of the QS subject rankings feature all three of the business schools tied for first place in this year’s MBA rankings for North America. The addition is MIT - ranked 7th in the MBA rankings but 6th in the world here - an institution with a number of master’s options outside a traditional MBA, or offered in tandem with the MBA.

Singapore’s NUS is the highest-ranking representative of Asia-Pacific, in 11th position. While this means that no institutions from the region feature in the top 10 of the QS subject rankings for business and management, there are four in the top 20. Two Australian institutions (The University of Melbourne and The University of New South Wales in 15th and 19th place respectively) and one from Hong Kong (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 18th) also feature. Meanwhile, the highest entrant from Canada – the third-most popular destination for MBA study – is McGill University, but it has to contend with 36th place, at least for the time being.

The full QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015 can be accessed on our sister site, TopUniversities.com.