Best universities for business degrees 2024

Find the best universities for business degrees using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 data

October 26 2023

Top 10 universities in the world for business degrees 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for business degrees.

Business rank 2024	Business rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
2	2	Stanford University	United States
3	4	Harvard University	United States
4	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
=5	6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=5	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
7	5	The University of Chicago	United States
8	8	Tsinghua University	China
9	9	Yale University	United States
10	15	Peking University	China

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 909 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 do particularly well.

The UK has three universities among the top 20, which also features two institutions from two Asian territories and one from Switzerland.

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. 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.

=5. University of Cambridge

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. 

4. University of California, Berkeley

The Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in business. It is the second-oldest business school in the US.

While studying business at the university, students can use the career management group advisers to create personalised career plans and connect with businesses at which they might be interested in working.

Faculty in the business school have won two Nobel prizes.

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3. 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 PhDs or DBAs.

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. 

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 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.

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 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile

Business rank 2024	Business rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
2	2	Stanford University	United States
3	4	Harvard University	United States
4	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
=5	6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=5	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
7	5	The University of Chicago	United States
8	8	Tsinghua University	China
9	9	Yale University	United States
10	15	Peking University	China
11	10	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
12	13	University of Pennsylvania	United States
13	14	Northwestern University	United States
14	=11	Columbia University	United States
15	=11	National University of Singapore	Singapore
16	16	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
17	18	New York University	United States
18	17	Duke University	United States
19	19	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
20	21	Cornell University	United States
21	20	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
22	22	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
23	23	UCL	United Kingdom
24	=25	University of Toronto	Canada
25	30	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
26	24	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
27	33	Technical University of Munich	Germany
=28	=25	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
=28	=31	The University of Tokyo	Japan
30	29	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
31	36	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
32	28	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
33	=31	University of California, San Diego	United States
34	40	University of Minnesota	United States
35	38	University of British Columbia	Canada
36	=47	LMU Munich	Germany
37	41	University of Mannheim	Germany
38	45	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
39	34	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
40	=47	Tilburg University	Netherlands
41	35	University of Melbourne	Australia
=42	59	Fudan University	China
=42	37	Zhejiang University	China
=42	=42	University of Zurich	Switzerland
45	27	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
46	39	Monash University	Australia
47	44	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
=48	52	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=48	49	Dartmouth College	United States
50	46	Michigan State University	United States
51	=42	University of Southern California	United States
52	=73	University of Groningen	Netherlands
53	71	University of Bonn	Germany
54	50	University of Washington	United States
55	55	Australian National University	Australia
56	58	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=57	60	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=57	62	KU Leuven	Belgium
=59	53	University of St Gallen	Switzerland
=59	57	University of Texas at Austin	United States
61	90	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
63	76	University of California, Davis	United States
64	56	King’s College London	United Kingdom
65	54	Boston University	United States
66	66	Indiana University	United States
67	=77	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
=68	93	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
=68	99	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
=70	83	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=70	88	University of Sydney	Australia
=72	70	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=72	=77	University of Montreal	Canada
74	51	The University of Queensland	Australia
75	=67	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
=76	=100	Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	France
=76	=63	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
78	94	Kyoto University	Japan
79	101–125	University of Reading	United Kingdom
=80	126–150	University of Massachusetts	United States
=80	96	University of Navarra	Spain
82	=86	Lund University	Sweden
83	80	Maastricht University	Netherlands
84	=86	Aalto University	Finland
85	79	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
86	101–125	Western University	Canada
88	65	Seoul National University	South Korea
89	=73	McGill University	Canada
90	=67	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
=91	=100	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=91	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
93	85	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
94	82	University of Florida	United States
95	89	Texas A&M University	United States
96	101–125	City, University of London	United Kingdom
=97	81	Nanjing University	China
=97	72	UNSW Sydney	Australia
=99	69	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
=99	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
101–125	151–175	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	151–175	Abu Dhabi University	United Arab Emirates
101–125	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	61	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Bologna	Italy
101–125	101–125	Boston College	United States
101–125	101–125	Durham University	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	George Washington University	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	97	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
101–125	84	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
101–125	98	Politecnico di Milano	Italy
101–125	126–150	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
101–125	101–125	Universitat Ramon Llull	Spain
101–125	201–250	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	101–125	University of Science and Technology of China	China
101–125	92	Sichuan University	China
101–125	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
101–125	101–125	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Tongji University	China
101–125	101–125	University of Twente	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	University of Vienna	Austria
101–125	91	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	University of Auckland	New Zealand
126–150	101–125	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	101–125	University of Bath	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Beihang University	China
126–150	151–175	Beijing Institute of Technology	China
126–150	201–250	University of Cologne	Germany
126–150	151–175	Free University of Berlin	Germany
126–150	201–250	University of Georgia	United States
126–150	101–125	Ghent University	Belgium
126–150	101–125	Griffith University	Australia
126–150	126–150	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
126–150	126–150	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
126–150	151–175	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Macquarie University	Australia
126–150	151–175	University of Malaya	Malaysia
126–150	176–200	RMIT University	Australia
126–150	101–125	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
126–150	95	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
126–150	126–150	University College Dublin	Ireland
126–150	301–400	Vanderbilt University	United States
126–150	101–125	Washington University in St Louis	United States
126–150	101–125	The University of Western Australia	Australia
126–150	301–400	Wuhan University	China
126–150	201–250	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Bayreuth	Germany
151–175	176–200	Beijing Normal University	China
151–175	201–250	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	126–150	University of Essex	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Georgia State University	United States
151–175	=63	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
151–175	126–150	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
151–175	151–175	Kyung Hee University	South Korea
151–175	151–175	University of Newcastle	Australia
151–175	201–250	Northeastern University, US	United States
151–175	151–175	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
151–175	201–250	Universiti Putra Malaysia	Malaysia
151–175	126–150	Universiti Sains Malaysia	Malaysia
151–175	126–150	Sejong University	South Korea
151–175	126–150	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
151–175	176–200	Stockholm University	Sweden
151–175	151–175	Sun Yat-sen University	China
151–175	151–175	Swansea University	United Kingdom
151–175	251–300	Swinburne University of Technology	Australia
151–175	151–175	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
151–175	201–250	Temple University	United States
151–175	201–250	Tianjin University	China
151–175	126–150	University of Waikato	New Zealand
151–175	201–250	University of Waterloo	Canada
151–175	176–200	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Adelaide	Australia
176–200	126–150	Aston University	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
176–200	176–200	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
176–200	251–300	Curtin University	Australia
176–200	151–175	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano	Italy
176–200	201–250	Georgetown University	United States
176–200	251–300	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
176–200	201–250	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
176–200	251–300	University of Innsbruck	Austria
176–200	201–250	Linköping University	Sweden
176–200	251–300	North Carolina State University	United States
176–200	126–150	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	126–150	University of Rochester	United States
176–200	201–250	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
176–200	201–250	University of South Australia	Australia
176–200	176–200	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia	Malaysia
176–200	201–250	United Arab Emirates University	United Arab Emirates
176–200	151–175	Universiti Utara Malaysia	Malaysia
176–200	201–250	Washington State University	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Wollongong	Australia

Editor’s 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 universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.