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Best universities for business degrees 2023

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

    October 25 2022
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    Top 10 universities in the world for business degrees

    Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for business degrees

    Business and economics rank 2023  Business and economics rank 2022  University Country/region
     1   =1  Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
     2   =1  Stanford University United States
     3   4  University of Oxford United Kingdom
     4   5  Harvard University United States
     5   7  The University of Chicago United States
     6   3  University of Cambridge United Kingdom
     7   6  University of California, Berkeley United States
     8   11  Tsinghua University China
     9   8  Yale University United States
     10   9  London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom

    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.

    University of Dundee
    Want to know more about the University of Dundee School of Business?

    The subject ranking for business includes 870 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 do particularly well.

    The UK has three universities among the top 20, which also features two 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.


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    Top 5 universities for business and economics degrees

    5. The University of Chicago

    The University of Chicago Booth School of Business offers an MBA degree in four formats: the full-time MBA, evening MBA, weekend MBA and the global executive MBA programme.

    The school also offers a PhD programme, as well as three joint PhD programmes and seven doctoral dissertation areas. Students can combine their business PhD programme with marketing, financial economics and psychology.

    Undergraduate students are also able to take business courses within the university’s Faculty of Economics.

    4. 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 with 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 undergraduate level. There are also summer programmes for undergraduates. These range from a one-day taster of the MBA programme to a 10-week course on research into markets and organisations. 

    3. 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.

    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.


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    2. Stanford University

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

    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 with 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.

    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, tackling them with scientific approaches. The course also provides opportunities to conduct 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.


    Best universities for business degrees in the UK
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    Top 200 universities for business and economics 2023

    Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2023 profile

    Business and economics rank 2023  Business and economics rank 2022  University Country/region
     1   =1  Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
     2   =1  Stanford University United States
     3   4  University of Oxford United Kingdom
     4   5  Harvard University United States
     5   7  The University of Chicago United States
     6   3  University of Cambridge United Kingdom
     7   6  University of California, Berkeley United States
     8   11  Tsinghua University China
     9   8  Yale University United States
     10   9  London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
     =11   14  Columbia University United States
     =11   15  National University of Singapore Singapore
     13   12  University of Pennsylvania United States
     14   13  Northwestern University United States
     15   22  Peking University China
     16   21  ETH Zurich Switzerland
     17   10  Duke University United States
     18   17  New York University United States
     19   19  University of California, Los Angeles United States
     20   18  University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States
     21   23  Cornell University United States
     22   26  Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
     23   20  UCL United Kingdom
     24   24  University of Warwick United Kingdom
     =25   =29  Copenhagen Business School Denmark
     =25   28  University of Toronto Canada
     27   25  Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
     28   27  Carnegie Mellon University United States
     29   33  The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
     30   =55  Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
     =31   32  University of California, San Diego United States
     =31   =29  The University of Tokyo Japan
     33   =55  Technical University of Munich Germany
     34   34  University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
     35   43  University of Melbourne Australia
     36   31  University of Manchester United Kingdom
     37   =67  Zhejiang University China
     38   35  University of British Columbia Canada
     39   =53  Monash University Australia
     40   36  University of Minnesota United States
     41   42  University of Mannheim Germany
     =42   =39  University of Southern California United States
     =42   47  University of Zurich Switzerland
     44   78  Yonsei University (Seoul campus) South Korea
     45   49  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore
     46   52  Michigan State University United States
     =47   46  LMU Munich Germany
     =47   =37  Tilburg University Netherlands
     49   48  Dartmouth College United States
     50   45  University of Washington United States
     51   =39  The University of Queensland Australia
     52   94  City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
     53   59  University of St Gallen Switzerland
     54   =37  Boston University United States
     55   80  Australian National University Australia
     56   79  King’s College London United Kingdom
     57   =50  University of Texas at Austin United States
     58   41  University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
     59   71  Fudan University China
     60   58  Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
     61   44  Arizona State University (Tempe) United States
     62   62  KU Leuven Belgium
     =63   126–150  King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
     =63   =69  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
     65   =65  Seoul National University South Korea
     66   =69  Indiana University United States
     =67   99  University of Nottingham United Kingdom
     =67   61  University of Surrey United Kingdom
     69   85  Lancaster University United Kingdom
     70   =53  Johns Hopkins University United States
     71   =67  University of Bonn Germany
     72   =55  UNSW Sydney Australia
     =73   =83  University of Groningen Netherlands
     =73   64  McGill University Canada
     75   97  Georgia Institute of Technology United States
     76   74  University of California, Davis United States
     =77   76  University of Montreal Canada
     =77   =50  University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
     79   98  University of Maryland, College Park United States
     80   =72  Maastricht University Netherlands
     81   =88  Nanjing University China
     82   86  University of Florida United States
     83   =83  University of Amsterdam Netherlands
     84   77  National Taiwan University (NTU) Taiwan
     85   =72  Pompeu Fabra University Spain
     =86   60  Aalto University Finland
     =86   75  Lund University Sweden
     88   101–125  University of Sydney Australia
     89   101–125  Texas A&M University United States
     90   96  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
     91   =92  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
     92   126–150  Sichuan University China
     93   NR  Purdue University West Lafayette United States
     94   63  Kyoto University Japan
     95   101–125  University of Sheffield United Kingdom
     96   176–200  University of Navarra Spain
     97   =65  University of Leeds United Kingdom
     98   101–125  Politecnico di Milano Italy
     99   101–125  University of Virginia (Main campus) United States
     =100   101–125  Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées France
     =100   82  Penn State (Main campus) United States
     101–125   101–125  University of Alberta Canada
     101–125   101–125  Autonomous University of Barcelona Spain
     101–125   101–125  University of Bath United Kingdom
     101–125   101–125  University of Birmingham United Kingdom
     101–125   90  Boston College United States
     101–125   126–150  City, University of London United Kingdom
     101–125   126–150  Durham University United Kingdom
     101–125   101–125  Ghent University Belgium
     101–125   100  University of Glasgow United Kingdom
     101–125   101–125  Griffith University Australia
     101–125   =88  Ohio State University (Main campus) United States
     101–125   101–125  Universitat Ramon Llull Spain
     101–125   126–150  University of Reading United Kingdom
     101–125   95  Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa Italy
     101–125   NR  University of Science and Technology of China China
     101–125   91  University of Sussex United Kingdom
     101–125   126–150  Tongji University China
     101–125   101–125  Trinity College Dublin Ireland
     101–125   =92  University of Twente Netherlands
     101–125   81  University of Vienna Austria
     101–125   87  Washington University in St Louis United States
     101–125   151–175  The University of Western Australia Australia
     101–125   126–150  Western University Canada
     126–150   151–175  Asia University, Taiwan Taiwan
     126–150   126–150  Aston University United Kingdom
     126–150   151–175  University of Auckland New Zealand
     126–150   126–150  University of Bayreuth Germany
     126–150   151–175  University of Canterbury New Zealand
     126–150   126–150  Chalmers University of Technology Sweden
     126–150   151–175  Dublin City University Ireland
     126–150   NR  University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
     126–150   176–200  University of Essex United Kingdom
     126–150   126–150  George Washington University United States
     126–150   126–150  Institut Polytechnique de Paris France
     126–150   176–200  Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
     126–150   151–175  Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT Finland
     126–150   126–150  University of Lausanne Switzerland
     126–150   126–150  University of Massachusetts United States
     126–150   126–150  Queensland University of Technology Australia
     126–150   126–150  Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
     126–150   101–125  University of Rochester United States
     126–150   176–200  Universiti Sains Malaysia Malaysia
     126–150   126–150  Sejong University South Korea
     126–150   101–125  University of Southampton United Kingdom
     126–150   151–175  University of Southern Denmark Denmark
     126–150   126–150  Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) South Korea
     126–150   101–125  University of Technology Sydney Australia
     126–150   126–150  University College Dublin Ireland
     126–150   101–125  University of Waikato New Zealand
     151–175   176–200  Aarhus University Denmark
     151–175   NR  Abu Dhabi University United Arab Emirates
     151–175   176–200  Beijing Institute of Technology China
     151–175   176–200  University of Bologna Italy
     151–175   251–300  University of Bradford United Kingdom
     151–175   151–175  University of East Anglia United Kingdom
     151–175   126–150  University of Exeter United Kingdom
     151–175   151–175  Free University of Berlin Germany
     151–175   201–250  Georgia State University United States
     151–175   151–175  King Saud University Saudi Arabia
     151–175   201–250  Kyung Hee University South Korea
     151–175   201–250  Loughborough University United Kingdom
     151–175   151–175  Macquarie University Australia
     151–175   151–175  University of Malaya Malaysia
     151–175   176–200  University of Newcastle Australia
     151–175   201–250  University of Nicosia Cyprus
     151–175   126–150  University of Otago New Zealand
     151–175   101–125  Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France
     151–175   101–125  Sun Yat-sen University China
     151–175   201–250  Swansea University United Kingdom
     151–175   101–125  Technical University of Berlin Germany
     151–175   201–250  Universiti Utara Malaysia Malaysia
     176–200   251–300  University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
     176–200   176–200  University of Antwerp Belgium
     176–200   251–300  Beihang University China
     176–200   126–150  Beijing Normal University China
     176–200   401–500  Bilkent University Turkey
     176–200   151–175  Central South University China
     176–200   201–250  Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Italy
     176–200   201–250  University of Kent United Kingdom
     176–200   201–250  Koç University Turkey
     176–200   NR  Leuphana University of Lüneburg Germany
     176–200   176–200  Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
     176–200   301–400  Macau University of Science and Technology Macao
     176–200   101–125  Newcastle University United Kingdom
     176–200   201–250  University of Plymouth United Kingdom
     176–200   101–125  Rice University United States
     176–200   251–300  RMIT University Australia
     176–200   101–125  Rutgers University – New Brunswick United States
     176–200   301–400  University of Sharjah United Arab Emirates
     176–200   151–175  University of St Andrews United Kingdom
     176–200   151–175  Stockholm University Sweden
     176–200   201–250  Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Malaysia
     176–200   176–200  Worcester Polytechnic Institute United States
     176–200   201–250  Xiamen University China
     176–200   151–175  York University Canada

    Click here to view the full ranking for business degrees

    Editors note: As part of our THE statement on Ukraine published on 2 March 2022, Russian universities have been given less prominence in our rankings. Russian and Belarusian universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.

    University of Dundee
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