Financial Times ranks IESE’s MBA fourth in the world

Result follows recent no.1 ranking in The Economist, consolidating IESE´s positon as one of the world´s top business schools
FT ranking highlights IESE´s focus on responsible business, career outcomes for graduates and the program´s internationality

February 08, 2021. The FT Global MBA Ranking 2021, released today by the Financial Times, has ranked IESE Business School´s full-time MBA in the top five programs in the world, and third in Europe. This latest result, which comes off the back of ranking no.1 in the world by The Economist, consolidates IESE´s position as one of the best MBA programs in the world.

According to the FT´s 2021 ranking, IESE´s full-time MBA ranks joint fourth in the world, alongside Yale School of Management. Insead, followed by London Business School in second and Chicago Booth in third, complete the top five spots.

No.1 in the world for CSR

This latest ranking by the Financial Times particularly highlights IESE’s strength in developing responsible business leaders. IESE’s MBA is ranked first in the world for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the second year in a row. The CSR metric looks at course content dedicated to CSR, ethics, and social and environmental issues. It means that since this criterion was introduced by the FT in 2019, IESE has only ever ranked first or second in the world on this measure.

“Coming first in the world for Corporate Social Responsibility for the second year in a row reflects our focus on social impact,” says Marc Badia, Associate Dean for MBA programs at IESE Business School. “Throughout the MBA, students take courses covering all aspects of social, environmental and ethical issues in business. That includes dedicated courses on topics like social impact consulting, or our new joint MBA course on the Future of Capitalism, where students critically observe the current state of capitalism and explore the roles of business leadership required to create a better future.”

The career outcomes for IESE MBA students also stood out as key to IESE´s good performance in the ranking. IESE ranks no.5 in the world for the career progress of its MBA graduates. There was also a 131% salary increase on average for IESE graduates, the highest increase of any school in Europe according to the ranking.

IESE also ranked no.8 in the world for International Course Experience, as well as performing well on the international mobility of its alumni (no.12 overall), reflecting the strong international approach of the program which prepares its graduates to take up positions across the globe. On the IESE MBA, students have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of business across different continents and interact daily with international faculty and peers.

“While there are always a number of factors that determine a school´s ranking position in any given year, this excellent result combined with our solid performance in the major international rankings year-on-year, confirms the strength and depth of our program,” says prof. Badia.

This latest result continues IESE´s strong performance in the major international rankings over a number of years. Including:

1st in world according to The Economist 2021 MBA ranking
1st in the world for executive education for six straight years (2015-2020), according to the FT Executive Education ranking
3rd in Forbes for the two-year international MBA

See the complete FT ranking here.