Best universities for business degrees 2024

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

October 28 2020

Choosing 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 700 universities in 62 countries.

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The majority of the top 20 universities in the business ranking are US colleges, with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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, which also features three institutions from two Asian territories.

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 complete 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

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Top 5 universities for business and economics degrees

1. 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 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.

2. 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, tackling them with scientific approaches. The course also provides opportunities to do research and to 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 University, it is a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.

3. University of Cambridge

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

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

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.

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 Oxford

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

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

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

The current dean, Peter Tufano, was at Harvard Business School before joining 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. Although not all colleges accept business students, the majority do.

5. Harvard University

Harvard University’s Business School is one of the most prestigious postgraduate business schools in the world.

The school offers a two-year MBA that promises a focus on real-world practice. There are also eight doctoral programmes leading to a PhD or DBA.

At the moment Harvard does not offer an undergraduate business programme, but students are able to study economics at the undergraduate level.

Student experience of business and economics degrees

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International perspective: an American student in China
London Venture Crawl: encouraging entrepreneurship in students
Starting a business at university
International perspective: a Dutch student in Denmark
International perspective: a Malaysian student in the UK

Top 200 universities for business and economics 2021

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2021 profile

Business and economics rank 2021	Business and economics rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	2	Stanford University	United States
2	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
3	4	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	10	Harvard University	United States
6	8	The University of Chicago	United States
7	6	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
8	11	Yale University	United States
9	5	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	7	Duke University	United States
11	9	University of Pennsylvania	United States
12	=12	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
13	=12	Northwestern University	United States
14	14	National University of Singapore	Singapore
15	17	New York University	United States
16	16	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
17	19	Tsinghua University	China
18	15	Columbia University	United States
19	18	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
20	21	UCL	United Kingdom
21	20	Peking University	China
22	26	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
23	22	Cornell University	United States
24	27	University of Toronto	Canada
25	28	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
26	29	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
27	25	University of California, San Diego	United States
28	24	University of British Columbia	Canada
=29	32	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
=29	34	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
=29	23	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
32	37	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
33	31	The University of Tokyo	Japan
34	45	Boston University	United States
35	35	University of Minnesota	United States
36	30	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
37	33	Tilburg University	Netherlands
38	36	University of Washington	United States
39	41	University of Mannheim	Germany
40	38	University of Melbourne	Australia
41	=55	The University of Queensland	Australia
42	43	University of Southern California	United States
43	=55	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
44	42	LMU Munich	Germany
=45	NR	University of California, Davis	United States
=45	=60	Indiana University	United States
47	=48	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
48	44	Dartmouth College	United States
49	=48	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
50	39	Michigan State University	United States
=51	40	University of Texas at Austin	United States
=51	51	University of Zurich	Switzerland
=53	54	Aalto University	Finland
=53	=46	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
55	67	University of Bonn	Germany
56	=58	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
57	=63	UNSW Sydney	Australia
58	52	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
59	=60	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
60	=46	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
61	=83	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
62	73	Maastricht University	Netherlands
63	66	KU Leuven	Belgium
64	62	Technical University of Munich	Germany
65	=91	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
66	79	University of St Gallen	Switzerland
=67	=94	Fudan University	China
=67	101–125	Monash University	Australia
=69	=63	Australian National University	Australia
=69	57	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=69	75	Lund University	Sweden
72	=58	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=73	=80	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
=73	70	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
=75	=83	Kyoto University	Japan
=75	69	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
77	72	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
78	68	Boston College	United States
79	65	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
80	=76	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
81	=80	University of Groningen	Netherlands
82	=96	McGill University	Canada
83	101–125	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
=84	=91	University of Florida	United States
=84	=98	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
86	90	University of Sydney	Australia
87	=76	University of Vienna	Austria
88	=76	Washington University in St Louis	United States
89	86	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
=90	93	University of Alberta	Canada
=90	=88	Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	France
=92	71	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
=92	53	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
=92	101–125	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
95	50	Zhejiang University	China
96	82	Texas A&M University	United States
97	74	Seoul National University	South Korea
98	151–175	University of Montreal	Canada
=99	=98	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
=99	101–125	University of Twente	Netherlands
=99	101–125	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	101–125	Aston University	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Auckland	New Zealand
101–125	176–200	University of Bath	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
101–125	101–125	City, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	176–200	George Washington University	United States
101–125	176–200	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Griffith University	Australia
101–125	126–150	King’s College London	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Korea University	South Korea
101–125	101–125	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	101–125	Nanjing University	China
101–125	101–125	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	87	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
101–125	85	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
101–125	151–175	University of Reading	United Kingdom
101–125	100	Sun Yat-sen University	China
101–125	101–125	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
101–125	101–125	York University	Canada
126–150	126–150	Aarhus University	Denmark
126–150	126–150	University of Antwerp	Belgium
126–150	101–125	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	201–250	University of Bayreuth	Germany
126–150	201–250	Beijing Normal University	China
126–150	151–175	Central South University	China
126–150	126–150	Charles University in Prague	Czech Republic
126–150	201–250	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Essex	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Ghent University	Belgium
126–150	=94	HSE University	Russian Federation
126–150	151–175	University of Malaya	Malaysia
126–150	151–175	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
126–150	126–150	Renmin University of China	China
126–150	101–125	Rice University	United States
126–150	151–175	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Sejong University	South Korea
126–150	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	126–150	Stockholm University	Sweden
126–150	201–250	University of Waikato	New Zealand
126–150	126–150	Western University	Canada
126–150	151–175	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
126–150	126–150	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Free University of Berlin	Germany
151–175	NR	University of Geneva	Switzerland
151–175	126–150	Georgetown University	United States
151–175	126–150	Georgia State University	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Hamburg	Germany
151–175	101–125	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
151–175	176–200	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
151–175	126–150	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
151–175	201–250	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
151–175	151–175	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	201–250	McMaster University	Canada
151–175	151–175	University of Navarra	Spain
151–175	151–175	University of Newcastle	Australia
151–175	151–175	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
151–175	176–200	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
151–175	176–200	University of Rochester	United States
151–175	126–150	Simon Fraser University	Canada
151–175	151–175	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
151–175	=88	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
151–175	126–150	Temple University	United States
151–175	151–175	Tongji University	China
151–175	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	151–175	The University of Western Australia	Australia
176–200	126–150	Aalborg University	Denmark
176–200	251–300	Beijing Institute of Technology	China
176–200	201–250	Bournemouth University	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	Case Western Reserve University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	Emory University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
176–200	126–150	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Hong Kong Baptist University	Hong Kong
176–200	201–250	University of Innsbruck	Austria
176–200	201–250	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	151–175	Kyung Hee University	South Korea
176–200	176–200	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
176–200	201–250	Université libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
176–200	251–300	Linköping University	Sweden
176–200	176–200	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
176–200	201–250	Queen’s University	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of São Paulo	Brazil
176–200	151–175	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	University of Texas at Dallas	United States
176–200	201–250	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
176–200	176–200	Washington State University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Waterloo	Canada
176–200	126–150	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	United States

Click here to view the full ranking for business degrees

Reader's comments (2)

#1 Submitted by Tracey Clayton on March 5, 2018 - 12:53pm

Since competition is tough, you should focus on is keeping your GPA very high and engaging in as many as extracurricular activities as possible. If you want to go for the best, there are plenty tips on how to get into Stanford or any other university online, so finding them should not be too difficult.

#2 Submitted by Tracey Clayton on March 5, 2018 - 1:11pm

I’ve found this one https://www.crimsoneducation.org/admission-support/stanford-admissions