FT’s 2012 Ranking of European Business Schools

Earlier this week, the Financial Times released its ninth annual ranking of the best European business schools. In a major upset, Spain’s IE Business School unseated HEC Paris, which had occupied the top slot for the previous six years.

The ranking assesses the combined performance of Europe’s leading schools over four FT rankings in 2012: full-time MBA, executive MBA, masters in management, and non-degree executive education programs.

The Financial Times’ top 10 European schools are:

1. IE Business School
2. HEC Paris
3. London Business School
4. INSEAD
5. ESADE
6. IESE
7. IMD
8. University of Saint Gallen
9. Rotterdam School of Management
10. ESCP Europe

Both quality and quantity are required to reach the top, FT explains, noting that IE Business School is now included in all five rankings, having participated in the master in management ranking for the first time in 2012.

Though HEC Paris performed well across all five rankings, it received only a third of the program score due to the fact that its score in the EMBA ranking is reduced by two-thirds since it is part of the Trium joint program with NYU Stern School of Business and London School of Economics. In effect, writes the FT, HEC’s 4.33 programs lost out to IE’s five programs.

For more details on the rankings, including the strength of business education by country, see the complete 2012 Financial Times European business school rankings.