Best universities for business degrees 2023

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.

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.

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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

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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.