Best universities for business degrees 2020

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

November 6 2019

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 600 universities in 62 countries.

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The majority of the top 20 universities in the business ranking are US colleges, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University at the top.

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

The UK has three 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.

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Top 5 universities for business and economics degrees

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 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.

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 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.

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 across business, management and finance.

The school is 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.

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4. University of Cambridge

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

The university is also home to over 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.

5. University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley business school is known as the Haas School of Business. It is the second-oldest business school in the United States, having been established in 1898.

Faculty members include two Nobel Prize laureates in economics.

The school offers courses across the academic spectrum, including full-time MBA, evening and weekend MBA, MBA for executives, master of financial education and undergraduate degrees.

It also puts on a summer programme, which is an intensive six-week summer course that gives non-business students the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of business.

Student experience of business and economics degrees

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Top 200 universities for business and economics 2020

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2020 profile

Business and economics rank 2020	Business and economics rank 2019	University	Country/region
1	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
2	2	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
5	6	University of California, Berkeley	United States
6	8	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
7	5	Duke University	United States
8	11	University of Chicago	United States
9	10	University of Pennsylvania	United States
10	7	Harvard University	United States
11	9	Yale University	United States
=12	20	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
=12	12	Northwestern University	United States
14	17	National University of Singapore	Singapore
15	13	Columbia University	United States
16	=15	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
17	=15	New York University	United States
18	14	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
19	18	Tsinghua University	China
20	23	Peking University	China
21	19	UCL	United Kingdom
22	21	Cornell University	United States
23	22	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
24	25	University of British Columbia	Canada
25	30	University of California, San Diego	United States
26	=33	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
27	=28	University of Toronto	Canada
28	32	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
29	24	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
30	27	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
31	26	The University of Tokyo	Japan
32	35	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
33	=28	Tilburg University	Netherlands
34	38	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
35	31	University of Minnesota	United States
36	38	University of Washington	United States
37	37	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
38	43	University of Melbourne	Australia
39	45	Michigan State University	United States
40	46	University of Texas at Austin	United States
41	=33	University of Mannheim	Germany
42	NR	LMU Munich	Germany
43	47	University of Southern California	United States
44	41	Dartmouth College	United States
45	56	Boston University	United States
=46	44	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=46	=57	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
=48	59	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=48	36	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
50	53	Zhejiang University	China
51	42	University of Zurich	Switzerland
52	65	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
53	=57	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
54	62	Aalto University	Finland
=55	49	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=55	=73	University of Queensland	Australia
57	39	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=58	78	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=58	55	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
=60	52	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=60	64	Indiana University	United States
62	NR	Technical University of Munich	Germany
=63	50	Australian National University	Australia
=63	70	UNSW Sydney	Australia
65	67	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
66	=60	KU Leuven	Belgium
67	NR	University of Bonn	Germany
68	63	Boston College	United States
69	66	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
70	=84	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
71	51	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
72	=60	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
73	68	Maastricht University	Netherlands
74	48	Seoul National University	South Korea
75	80	Lund University	Sweden
=76	82	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=76	83	University of Vienna	Austria
=76	=76	Washington University in St Louis	United States
79	=73	University of St Gallen	Switzerland
=80	=76	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=80	69	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
82	72	Texas A&M University	United States
=83	71	Kyoto University	Japan
=83	101–125	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
85	99	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
86	101–125	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
87	88	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
=88	53	Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	France
=88	92	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
90	101–125	University of Sydney	Australia
=91	=94	University of Florida	United States
=91	101–125	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
93	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
=94	89	Fudan University	China
=94	101–125	Higher School of Economics	Russian Federation
=96	75	École Polytechnique	France
=96	=84	McGill University	Canada
=98	101–125	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
=98	93	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
100	126–150	Sun Yat-sen University	China
101–125	126–150	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	101–125	Aston University	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	126–150	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
101–125	=100	City, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Essex	United Kingdom
101–125	176–200	Griffith University	Australia
101–125	91	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
101–125	79	Korea University	South Korea
101–125	90	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
101–125	=100	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
101–125	=94	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	=94	Monash University	Australia
101–125	92	Nanjing University	China
101–125	126–150	Northeastern University	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	87	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	81	Rice University	United States
101–125	101–125	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
101–125	NR	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	126–150	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
101–125	101–125	University of Twente	Netherlands
101–125	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	York University	Canada
126–150	126–150	Aalborg University	Denmark
126–150	151–175	Aarhus University	Denmark
126–150	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
126–150	NR	Charles University in Prague	Czech Republic
126–150	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Free University of Berlin	Germany
126–150	151–175	Georgetown University	United States
126–150	126–150	Georgia State University	United States
126–150	97	King’s College London	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
126–150	101–125	Renmin University of China	China
126–150	151–175	Sejong University	South Korea
126–150	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Simon Fraser University	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	176–200	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
126–150	126–150	Stockholm University	Sweden
126–150	201–250	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia	Malaysia
126–150	126–150	Tel Aviv University	Israel
126–150	126–150	Temple University	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Texas at Dallas	United States
126–150	=84	Western University	Canada
126–150	NR	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	United States
126–150	126–150	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Auckland	New Zealand
151–175	126–150	University of California, Irvine	United States
151–175	101–125	Case Western Reserve University	United States
151–175	201–250	Central South University	China
151–175	151–175	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
151–175	101–125	Emory University	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Konstanz	Germany
151–175	176–200	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
151–175	101–125	Kyung Hee University	South Korea
151–175	201–250	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Malaya	Malaysia
151–175	101–125	University of Montreal	Canada
151–175	151–175	University of Navarra	Spain
151–175	176–200	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Newcastle	Australia
151–175	176–200	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
151–175	176–200	University of Reading	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Tongji University	China
151–175	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	201–250	University of Waterloo	Canada
151–175	176–200	University of Western Australia	Australia
151–175	101–125	Xiamen University	China
151–175	176–200	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
176–200	126–150	University of Bath	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Brunel University London	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
176–200	176–200	University of Cape Town	South Africa
176–200	176–200	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
176–200	101–125	George Washington University	United States
176–200	151–175	Ghent University	Belgium
176–200	126–150	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	University of Hamburg	Germany
176–200	301–400	Hunan University	China
176–200	176–200	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
176–200	126–150	Iowa State University	United States
176–200	201–250	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	301–400	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
176–200	151–175	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
176–200	151–175	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
176–200	201–250	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	126–150	University of Rochester	United States
176–200	201–250	Sichuan University	China
176–200	176–200	Vanderbilt University	United States
176–200	176–200	Washington State University	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