Best universities for business degrees 2019

Find the best universities for business degrees using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

Studying a business degree, whether at an undergraduate or postgraduate level, is a common first step into a range of vocations.

Where to study business is an important decision for prospective students, so Times Higher Education has published a world ranking of business and economics degrees.

The subject ranking for business includes more than 500 universities in 62 countries.

Rankings by subject

Best universities for arts and humanities
Best universities for clinical, pre-clinical and health
Best universities for computer science
Best universities for engineering and technology
Best universities for life sciences
Best universities for physical sciences
Best universities for social sciences
Best universities for law degrees
Best universities for education degrees

The majority of the top 20 universities in the business ranking are US colleges, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University at the top.

Although the US dominates the ranking, universities in the UK and across Asia also do particularly well.

The UK has four universities in the top 20 as well as two Asian institutions.

Canadian, Dutch and Australian schools also perform well for business and economics degrees.

The ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with slightly more weight given to teaching and research metrics and slightly less to citations. The full methodology can be found here.

Scroll down for a full list of degrees covered by the ranking and the career paths that they open up.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in the world
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Europe
Best universities in France
Best universities in the Netherlands
Best universities in Germany

Top 5 universities for business and economics degrees

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Sloan School of Management, also known as MIT Sloan, offers business programmes at the university.

In addition to MBA courses, executive training programmes and other postgraduate degrees, the school also teaches undergraduates through “Course 15”, which provides business skills to students with a technical and quantitative background.

The classes feature problem sets that make use of real-world business cases, approaching them with scientific methodology. The course also provides opportunities to do research and take part in entrepreneurship competitions.

Business courses at MIT cover a variety of topics, including operations research, consulting, entrepreneurship, finance, information technology, product development and marketing.

There is an emphasis on innovation across all these topics. Many influential new ideas in business, including the field of system dynamics, were born out of work at the Sloan School.

MIT is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, next door to Harvard, it is a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.

2. Stanford University

Stanford’s graduate business school admits students for MBA, PhD, master’s and executive degrees.

The school’s dean is Jonathan Levin, a renowned expert in industrial organisation.

In 2006, the school received what was then the largest endowment ever given to a business school: $105 million from Phil Knight, an alumnus and the founder of Nike.

The business school at Stanford is known to be the most selective in the US, based on the competition for acceptance on to a course. Typically, less than 7 per cent of applicants secure a place.

Postgraduate students can also take joint degrees at other schools, combining business with subjects such as earth sciences, education and law.

Although there is no specific business and management programme for undergraduates, students can choose to major in economics, international relations or management science and engineering.

3. University of Oxford

Undergraduate business students at the University of Oxford study economics and management within the traditional degree framework, largely taught in small group tutorials.

Oxford’s academic department for business is the Saïd Business School, which teaches across business, management and finance.

The school is 20 years old – fairly new compared with other prestigious business schools around the world.

Current dean Peter Tufano was at Harvard Business School before going to Oxford.

The postgraduate programmes on offer include the popular MBA programme, an executive MBA programme, a PhD in management studies and master’s degrees in financial economics, law and finance and strategic management.

MBA students can also extend their one-year degree to combine the course with one of the specialised master’s programmes.

All business students are members of an Oxford college and participate in university life outside the business school. Not all colleges accept business students but the majority do.

What can you do with an accounting degree?
What can you do with a business and management degree?
What can you do with an economics degree?

4. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is made up of 29 separate colleges.

The university is also home to over 100 libraries, which hold more than 15 million books in total.

Business and economics degrees are generally taught at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Courses include the MBA, master of finance, master of accounting and a number of MPhil programmes.

5. Duke University

Duke University is a private university located in North Carolina in the US. As of 2018, 13 Nobel Laureates and three Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university.

The faculty teaches across 10 disciplines including accounting, marketing, economics, finance, management and health sector management. The Duke MBA offers several joint degree programmes with other subjects offered at the university, including medicine, law, environment and earth sciences, public policy and nursing.

There are also a number of research centres affiliated with the business school, which focus on leadership and ethics, social entrepreneurship, innovation, the environment and financial excellence.

Student experience of business and economics degrees

The highlights of my time as a Chinese University of Hong Kong student
Making meaningful connections at a small university
My experience as a foreign student in China led to a job with Google
Nobel laureates offer their advice to young economists
International perspective: an American student in China
London Venture Crawl: encouraging entrepreneurship in students

Top 200 universities for business and economics 2019

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2019 profile

Business Rank 2019	Business Rank 2018	University	Country/Region
1	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
2	1	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
5	NR	Duke University	United States
6	10	University of California, Berkeley	United States
7	6	Harvard University	United States
8	NR	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
9	NR	Yale University	United States
10	9	University of Pennsylvania	United States
11	7	University of Chicago	United States
12	8	Northwestern University	United States
13	11	Columbia University	United States
14	NR	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=15	NR	University of Michigan	United States
=15	13	New York University	United States
17	16	National University of Singapore	Singapore
18	29	Tsinghua University	China
19	NR	UCL	United Kingdom
20	NR	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
21	12	Cornell University	United States
22	14	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
23	17	Peking University	China
24	15	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
25	19	University of British Columbia	Canada
26	NR	The University of Tokyo	Japan
27	31	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=28	21	Tilburg University	Netherlands
=28	22	University of Toronto	Canada
30	=24	University of California, San Diego	United States
31	18	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	United States
32	=24	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
=33	20	University of Mannheim	Germany
=33	23	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
35	30	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
36	NR	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
37	26	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
38	NR	University of Washington	United States
38	39	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
39	NR	Johns Hopkins University	United States
41	=34	Dartmouth College	United States
42	43	University of Zurich	Switzerland
43	42	University of Melbourne	Australia
44	=32	Pennsylvania State University	United States
45	=34	Michigan State University	United States
46	=36	University of Texas at Austin	United States
47	=32	University of Southern California	United States
48	NR	Seoul National University	South Korea
49	=61	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
50	=36	Australian National University	Australia
51	46	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
52	52	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
53	67	Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	France
53	101–125	Zhejiang University	China
55	NR	Ohio State University	United States
56	38	Boston University	United States
=57	NR	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
=57	=40	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
59	44	Arizona State University	United States
=60	=58	KU Leuven	Belgium
=60	50	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
62	=58	Aalto University	Finland
63	57	Boston College	United States
64	=40	Indiana University	United States
65	78	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
66	45	University of Virginia	United States
67	49	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
68	56	Maastricht University	Netherlands
69	NR	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
70	55	University of New South Wales	Australia
71	NR	Kyoto University	Japan
72	79	Texas A&M University	United States
=73	=76	University of Queensland	Australia
=73	63	University of St Gallen	Switzerland
75	101–125	École Polytechnique	France
=76	65	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=76	=81	Washington University in St Louis	United States
78	66	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
79	=68	Korea University	South Korea
80	NR	Lund University	Sweden
81	64	Rice University	United States
82	51	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
83	=76	University of Vienna	Austria
=84	48	McGill University	Canada
=84	101–125	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
=84	53	Western University	Canada
87	75	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
88	151–175	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
89	=61	Fudan University	China
90	60	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
91	NR	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
92	101–125	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
92	151–175	Nanjing University	China
93	91	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
=94	NR	University of Florida	United States
=94	=68	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
=94	74	Monash University	Australia
97	NR	King’s College London	United Kingdom
99	101–125	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
=100	71	City, University of London	United Kingdom
=100	89	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
101–125	NR	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	=85	Aston University	United Kingdom
101–125	=92	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	94	Case Western Reserve University	United States
101–125	NR	Emory University	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	=68	Free University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	101–125	George Washington University	United States
101–125	101–125	Higher School of Economics	Russian Federation
101–125	176–200	Kyung Hee University	South Korea
101–125	54	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
101–125	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Montreal	Canada
101–125	=87	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
101–125	101–125	Renmin University of China	China
101–125	NR	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	126–150	Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna	Italy
101–125	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
101–125	90	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
101–125	83	University of Sydney	Australia
101–125	126–150	University of Twente	Netherlands
101–125	151–175	Xiamen University	China
101–125	72	York University	Canada
126–150	151–175	Aalborg University	Denmark
126–150	73	University of Arizona	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Bath	United Kingdom
126–150	=85	University of California, Irvine	United States
126–150	=92	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
126–150	101–125	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	NR	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	97	Georgia State University	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	University of Hamburg	Germany
126–150	151–175	Iowa State University	United States
126–150	NR	University of Miami	United States
126–150	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
126–150	101–125	Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1	France
126–150	NR	University of Rochester	United States
126–150	126–150	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Simon Fraser University	Canada
126–150	176–200	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
126–150	126–150	Sun Yat-sen University	China
126–150	126–150	University of Technology, Sydney	Australia
126–150	126–150	Tel Aviv University	Israel
126–150	=87	Temple University	United States
126–150	95	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	101–125	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
151–175	126–150	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	101–125	University of Auckland	New Zealand
151–175	96	University of Bologna	Italy
151–175	101–125	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
151–175	151–175	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
151–175	NR	University of Cologne	Germany
151–175	126–150	University of Essex	United Kingdom
151–175	=99	Georgetown University	United States
151–175	98	Ghent University	Belgium
151–175	101–125	University of Konstanz	Germany
151–175	151–175	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
151–175	176–200	University of Malaya	Malaysia
151–175	126–150	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
151–175	101–125	University of Navarra	Spain
151–175	=99	University of Notre Dame	United States
151–175	NR	Osaka University	Japan
151–175	NR	University of Pittsburgh	United States
151–175	151–175	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
151–175	NR	Sejong University	South Korea
151–175	126–150	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of Texas at Dallas	United States
151–175	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
176–200	NR	University of Cape Town	South Africa
176–200	126–150	Carlos III University of Madrid	Spain
176–200	NR	University of Deusto	Spain
176–200	151–175	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
176–200	126–150	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
176–200	126–150	University of Georgia	United States
176–200	176–200	Griffith University	Australia
176–200	151–175	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
176–200	NR	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	176–200	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
176–200	126–150	University of Newcastle	Australia
176–200	176–200	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	101–125	Queen’s University	Canada
176–200	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
176–200	101–125	University of South Carolina	United States
176–200	126–150	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
176–200	201+	Tongji University	China
176–200	126–150	Uppsala University	Sweden
176–200	NR	Vanderbilt University	United States
176–200	201+	Washington State University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Western Australia	Australia
176–200	201+	University of Wollongong	Australia
176–200	126–150	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea

Share this post:

Twitter Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Email Reddit WhatsApp