Best universities for business degrees 2017

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

So where to study business is an important decision for prospective students. For the first time, Times Higher Education has published a world ranking of business and economics degrees.

The subject ranking for business includes 100 universities across 21 different countries.

Resources: universities by degree 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

The majority of the top 20 universities in the business ranking are American colleges, with MIT and Stanford at the very top.

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

Three of the 13 Asian institutions in the ranking feature in the top 20, making Asia as represented in the highest positions as the UK, which also has three universities in the top 20.

Canadian, Dutch, Australian and German 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.

Scroll down for a full list of degrees included in the business and economics ranking.

Resources: 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

Top five universities for business degrees

Scroll down for the top 50

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 adds a business perspective to students with a technical and quantitative background.

The classes include problem sets that use real-world business cases and approaches them with a scientific methodology. The course also provides opportunities to do research and take part in entrepreneurship competitions.

Business courses cover a variety of topics at MIT, 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 an alumnus and the founder of Nike.

The business school at Stanford is known to be the most selective in the US, determined by the competition for acceptance on to a course. Typically, fewer than 7 per cent of applications 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 Oxford study economics and management within the traditional degree framework, largely taught in college 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.

4. University of Chicago

The business school at the University of Chicago – called the Chicago Booth School – is the second oldest business school in the US, and the first to offer the executive MBA programme.

Like the university more generally, the business school promotes a distinctive intellectual culture, approaching business studies by testing ideas and seeking proof of theories.

Seven faculty members have won Nobel Prizes for innovative ideas in the field of business.

The school also boasts relationships with corporations that enables career opportunities for the extensive alumni network.

Although most students are enrolled full-time, the MBA course can also be taken in evenings or on weekends.

Based on the class of 2015, graduates secured jobs with consultancy firms such as McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company, and other financial services or commercial firms such as Amazon, Bank of America Merril Lynch and Credit Suisse.

Undergraduates can also major in business studies to supplement the liberal arts curriculum. The courses run over three years after the first year of study and offer business skills training.

5. Harvard University

Harvard Business School has a track record of aspiring business professors and people aiming to work in the sector.

Originally the school was conceived as a centre for diplomacy, based on the French grandes écoles system, but later developed into an academic department for business topics from banking to industrial progress.

The MBA at Harvard is a two-year residential programme, compared with one-year programmes elsewhere.

There is also an active community of business-minded undergraduates. The Harvard Undergaduate Women in Business society, formed by 10 undergraduates, organises conferences and events, and there is a summer programme run by the business school providing management training to undergraduates with business internships.

Harvard Business School’s faculty is split into 10 units, ranging from accounting and management to marketing.

Notable alumni include Michael Bloomberg, previously mayor of New York City, Robert Kraft, chairman of The Kraft Group, and Ana Patricia Botín, CEO of Santander UK.

Resources: European universities

- Best universities in Europe
- Best universities in France
- Best universities in the Netherlands
- Best universities in Germany

Best universities for business and economics 2016-2017

Click each institution to view its profile

Business and economics degrees:

• Business
• Economics
• Management
• Accounting
• Finance

Resources: universities by region

- Best universities in Asia
- Best universities in South America
- Best universities in Africa