LBS’ success comes just a year after it took third spot and it remains the UK’s only representative in the top 10 of the Global MBA Ranking.
The ranking was topped by Harvard Business School for the sixth time while Stanford Graduate School of Business, which was second last year, dropped to joint fourth. The University of Pennsylvania: Wharton business school climbed one place to third.
The table is based on a number of factors including gender diversity and the international spread of students, but the heaviest weighting is placed on alumni salaries.
The FT said that LBS’ MBA students earned an average of $154,147 (£102,563) three years after graduation – an uplift of 97 per cent on their previous earnings.
Sir Andrew Likierman, the dean of LBS, said the school had “much to be proud of”, including a strong performance in the research element of the ranking.
“Achieving sixth place in the research ranking underpins what we already know – London Business School faculty are global thought leaders,” said Sir Andrew. “We have also improved on the percentage of female faculty and female students at the school and maintained recognition for our global diversity and the international mix of our faculty and students.”
The US dominated the top 10, with the only other exceptions being INSEAD, based in France and Singapore, which was joint fourth, and Spain’s IESE Business School, which came seventh.
After LBS, the next highest ranking programme in the UK was taught at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, which climbed three places to 13th.
Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford rose one spot to 22nd, Imperial College Business School leaped from 49th to 34th, and Warwick Business School slumped from 25th last year to 38th this year.
However, analysis by the FT suggests that an MBA no longer provides the boost in earnings that it once did.
The paper’s research indicated that graduates who finished an MBA in 2011 earned an average of 92 per cent more three years after finishing than they did before their studies. In 2002 and 2003, the increase was 153 per cent.
Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2015: top 10
| Rank | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard Business School | US |
| 2 | London Business School | UK |
| 3 | University of Pennsylvania: Wharton | US |
| =4 | Stanford Graduate School of Business | US |
| =4 | INSEAD | France / Singapore |
| 6 | Columbia Business School | US |
| 7 | IESE Business School | Spain |
| 8 | MIT: Sloan | US |
| 9 | University of Chicago: Booth | US |
| 10 | University of California, Berkeley: Haas | US |
