Best universities for business degrees 2022

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

October 13 2021

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 Rank 2022	Business Rank 2021	University	Country/region
=1	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
=1	1	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	5	Harvard University	United States
6	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
7	6	The University of Chicago	United States
8	8	Yale University	United States
9	7	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
10	10	Duke University	United States

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.

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The subject ranking for business includes 795 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 five universities in 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. 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 organisation. 

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.

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.

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.

The business school has developed partnerships with companies in the private sector to facilitate collaborations. Business students are given the opportunity to work with the university’s partners on business and research projects. Students can also make the most of the nearby incubators, science parks and innovation centres.

The business school is home to the Entrepreneurship Centre, the Centre for Business Research, and the Psychometrics Centre. 

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=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 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

-MIT is one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
-Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, next door to Harvard University, it is a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.

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
Best universities for business degrees in Australia
Best universities for business degrees in the United States
Best universities for business degrees in Canada

Top 200 universities for business and economics 2022

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 202 2 profile

Business Rank 2022	Business Rank 2021	University	Country/region
=1	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
=1	1	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	5	Harvard University	United States
6	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
7	6	The University of Chicago	United States
8	8	Yale University	United States
9	7	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
10	10	Duke University	United States
11	17	Tsinghua University	China
12	11	University of Pennsylvania	United States
13	13	Northwestern University	United States
14	18	Columbia University	United States
15	14	National University of Singapore	Singapore
17	15	New York University	United States
18	16	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
19	19	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
20	20	UCL	United Kingdom
21	12	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
22	21	Peking University	China
23	23	Cornell University	United States
24	22	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
25	=29	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
26	25	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
27	26	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
28	24	University of Toronto	Canada
=29	=29	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
=29	33	The University of Tokyo	Japan
31	32	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
32	27	University of California, San Diego	United States
33	=29	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
34	36	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
35	28	University of British Columbia	Canada
36	35	University of Minnesota	United States
=37	34	Boston University	United States
=37	37	Tilburg University	Netherlands
=39	41	The University of Queensland	Australia
=39	42	University of Southern California	United States
41	43	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
42	39	University of Mannheim	Germany
43	40	University of Melbourne	Australia
44	49	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
45	38	University of Washington	United States
46	44	LMU Munich	Germany
47	=51	University of Zurich	Switzerland
48	48	Dartmouth College	United States
49	58	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
=50	=51	University of Texas at Austin	United States
=50	47	University of Wisconsin -Madison	United States
52	50	Michigan State University	United States
=53	=69	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=53	=67	Monash University	Australia
=55	=73	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
=55	64	Technical University of Munich	Germany
=55	57	UNSW Sydney	Australia
58	59	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
59	66	University of St Gallen	Switzerland
60	=53	Aalto University	Finland
61	61	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
62	63	KU Leuven	Belgium
63	=75	Kyoto University	Japan
64	82	McGill University	Canada
=65	65	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
=65	97	Seoul National University	South Korea
=67	55	University of Bonn	Germany
=67	95	Zhejiang University	China
=69	=45	Indiana University	United States
=69	=73	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
71	=67	Fudan University	China
=72	62	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=72	=53	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
74	=45	University of California, Davis	United States
75	=69	Lund University	Sweden
76	98	University of Montreal	Canada
77	=84	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
78	126–150	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
79	101–125	King’s College London	United Kingdom
80	=69	Australian National University	Australia
81	87	University of Vienna	Austria
82	60	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=83	80	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=83	81	University of Groningen	Netherlands
85	83	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
86	=84	University of Florida	United States
87	88	Washington University in St Louis	United States
=88	101–125	Nanjing University	China
=88	56	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
90	78	Boston College	United States
91	77	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
=92	=99	University of Twente	Netherlands
=92	=99	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
94	72	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
95	89	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
96	=92	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
97	=92	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
98	79	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
99	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
100	101–125	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	=90	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	126–150	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	101–125	University of Bath	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	=90	Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	France
101–125	126–150	Ghent University	Belgium
101–125	101–125	Griffith University	Australia
101–125	176–200	Linköping University	Sweden
101–125	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
101–125	=99	Politecnico di Milano	Italy
101–125	NR	Universitat Ramon Llull	Spain
101–125	126–150	Rice University	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Rochester	United States
101–125	=92	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Sun Yat-sen University	China
101–125	86	University of Sydney	Australia
101–125	101–125	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
101–125	96	Texas A&M University	United States
101–125	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
101–125	=75	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Waikato	New Zealand
126–150	101–125	Aston University	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Bayreuth	Germany
126–150	126–150	Beijing Normal University	China
126–150	201–250	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
126–150	101–125	City, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	George Washington University	United States
126–150	NR	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
126–150	151–175	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	101–125	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
126–150	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
126–150	201–250	University of Otago	New Zealand
126–150	101–125	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
126–150	151–175	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
126–150	101–125	University of Reading	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Sejong University	South Korea
126–150	201–250	Sichuan University	China
126–150	126–150	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	151–175	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
126–150	151–175	Tongji University	China
126–150	176–200	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
126–150	126–150	Western University	Canada
151–175	101–125	University of Arizona	United States
151–175	251–300	Asia University , Taiwan	Taiwan
151–175	101–125	University of Auckland	New Zealand
151–175	NR	CY Cergy Paris University	France
151–175	201–250	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
151–175	176–200	Case Western Reserve University	United States
151–175	126–150	Central South University	China
151–175	201–250	Dublin City University	Republic of Ireland
151–175	176–200	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Free University of Berlin	Germany
151–175	201–250	University of Georgia	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Hamburg	Germany
151–175	176–200	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia
151–175	101–125	Korea University	South Korea
151–175	176–200	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
151–175	151–175	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	126–150	University of Malaya	Malaysia
151–175	126–150	Northeastern University	United States
151–175	101–125	University of Notre Dame	United States
151–175	126–150	Renmin University of China	China
151–175	NR	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
151–175	151–175	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Stockholm University	Sweden
151–175	151–175	The University of Western Australia	Australia
151–175	101–125	York University	Canada
176–200	126–150	Aarhus University	Denmark
176–200	126–150	University of Antwerp	Belgium
176–200	176–200	Beijing Institute of Technology	China
176–200	201–250	University of Bologna	Italy
176–200	201–250	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
176–200	201–250	Deakin University	Australia
176–200	126–150	University of Essex	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	HSE University	Russian Federation
176–200	201–250	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
176–200	251–300	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
176–200	151–175	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
176–200	151–175	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
176–200	151–175	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	151–175	University of Navarra	Spain
176–200	151–175	University of Newcastle	Australia
176–200	201–250	Osaka University	Japan
176–200	201–250	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Universiti Sains Malaysia	Malaysia
176–200	151–175	Simon Fraser University	Canada
176–200	176–200	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	Temple University	United States
176–200	201–250	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
176–200	176–200	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	United States
176–200	126–150	University of York	United Kingdom

Click here to view the full ranking for business degrees

Editor's Note: This article was updated in January 2022 to reflect a change in the results. After the publication of the World University Rankings 2022, Imperial College London informed us that an incorrect distribution of their data at the subject level was considered for the ranking calculation. This matter was reviewed under our corrections policy and we agreed, at our discretion, to re-calculate Imperial College London’s score based on a corrected data submission at the subject level. The amendments have not affected Imperial College London’s rank in the World University Rankings, but have impacted their subject rankings in: Clinical and Health (4^th after correction; it was 3^rd before) and Physical Sciences (13^th after correction; it was joint 11^th before). Imperial College London previously did not appear in the Computer Science subject ranking but now features at 11^th place, while it has been removed from the Business and Economics and Education subject rankings as it no longer meets the eligibility criteria for these tables.