The leading British economic and financial daily has published its annual ranking of the best Masters in Management. Between surprises, confirmations and emerging trends, this ranking remains an essential tool for evaluating the performance of higher education establishments around the world. Like every year, this ranking is the pride of French higher education; its institutions are particularly well represented there.
To establish this classification, Financial Times looks at a panel of criteria, including the career progression of graduates, the quality of teaching, the internationalization of programs, the power of the alumni network, the carbon footprint, the proportion of women among students and in management teams, without forgetting the percentage of foreigners. A survey of graduates is carried out three years after leaving school to benefit from the perspective necessary to evaluate the various programs offered. In this regard, French schools are overwhelmingly pushing their Grande Ecole Program (with the exception of Grenoble EM and Audencia which respectively ranked the International MSc in Management and the MSc Management-Engineering).
Financial Times 2024-2025 ranking of the best Masters in Management in the world
This year, HEC Paris loses its first place to the University of Saint-Gall (Switzerland). However, French excellence still has a bright future ahead of it with 5 schools represented in the top 10 in the world. In this table, salary is highlighted as well as “career progression rank”. This classifies schools according to the salary evolution experienced by their graduates during their professional career.
| Position | School | Country | Salary (in $) |
Career progression rank
|
| 1 | University of St Gallen | Swiss | 140,020 | 60 |
| 2 | HEC Paris | France | 127,375 | 61 |
| 3 | Insead | France | 118,984 | 29 |
| 4 | Edhec Business School | France | 108,239 | 55 |
| 5 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai | China | 116,898 | 6 |
| 6 | ESCP Business School | France | 104 197 | 58 |
| 6 | London Business School | Great Britain | 119,823 | 65 |
| 8 | EMLyon Business School | France | 102,970 | 30 |
| 8 | Nova School of Business and Economics | Portugal | 109,874 | 20 |
Financial Times 2024-2025 ranking of French management schools
Here, we offer you a more global view of France’s place among the 101 management schools classified as being the best on the planet. Absent from previous rankings, INSEAD made a remarkable entry into third place with its new MiM, just behind HEC, which fell to second place. EDHEC continues its spectacular rise, gaining seven places compared to 2024 to climb to fourth place. The IESEG takes 9 places and is knocking on the door of the TOP 20 in the world. French schools continue to mark their presence on the international scene with 24 ranked establishments.
However, we must qualify these excellent performances by remembering that the MiM is a very European study format, which explains the absence of powerful American universities.
| Rank Business Cool | Rank 2024 | Rank 2023 | Progress | School |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | -1 | HEC |
| 2 | 3 | – | First integration | INSEAD |
| 3 | 4 | 11 | 7 | EDHEC |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | -2 | ESCP |
| 5 | 8 | 7 | 1 | emlyon |
| 6 | 10 | 5 | -5 | ESSEC |
| 7 | 23 | 32 | 9 | IESEG |
| 8 | 26 | 29 | 3 | GEM |
| 9 | 30 | 33 | 3 | Excelia |
| 10 | 30 | – | Return | SKEMA |
| 11 | 34 | 25 | -9 | NEOMA |
| 12 | 43 | 27 | -16 | Audencia |
| 13 | 45 | 37 | -8 | TBS |
| 14 | 47 | 51 | 4 | M.B.S. |
| 15 | 50 | 48 | -2 | KEDGE |
| 16 | 52 | – | Return | BSB |
| 17 | 63 | 52 | -11 | IMT-BS |
| 18 | 66 | – | Return | Em Strasbourg |
| 19 | 69 | 67 | -2 |
IAE Aix-Marseille
|
| 20 | 80 | 54 | -26 | ESSCA |
| 21 | 81 | 67 | -14 | ESC Clermont |
| 22 | 88 | 71 | -17 | Rennes SB |
| 23 | 90 | 36 | -54 | ICN |
| 24 | 93 | 78 | -15 | ESDES |
