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MIT Sloan School of Management in the US has topped the FT’s 2026 Global MBA Ranking for the first time, beating contenders including Insead, based in France and Singapore, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The recognition for MIT, up several places in the ranking from previous years, comes at a time of sharpening focus from students on the importance of technology, including artificial intelligence, as they prepare for disruptions in the workplace.
Richard Locke, the recently appointed dean of the Massachusetts school, says that Sloan is forging tight links with other parts of MIT, which is renowned for its engineering and science expertise, and focusing more on how AI could be used “as a tool not to replace jobs but enhance them”. He adds: “We are exploring how we reinvent management education for the 21st century.”
MIT Sloan, Insead and Wharton were followed in the top tier of eight by Iese in Spain, London Business School, HEC Paris, Spanish school Esade and Ceibs in China.
The ranking comes at a time of intensifying debate about the cost and value of MBAs, with the FT’s latest data showing that inflation-adjusted salaries outside the US and Canada have fallen over the past decade, although the real cost of the degree has also dropped in that time. And some graduates of even the leading business schools have had difficulty finding employment in the past year, in a patchy jobs market.
However, in a separate survey of 1,152 alumni of all ages from multiple business schools globally, 83 per cent said they rated their MBA or executive MBA “highly” or “very highly”. This additional survey was conducted by the FT in conjunction with ZHAW School of Management and Law in Switzerland and Beta Gamma Sigma, an honours society for high-scoring students. MBA and EMBA graduate satisfaction was greater than that of alumni of business undergraduate or pre-experience masters programmes.
The FT Global MBA Ranking assesses business schools — which choose to participate in the process — on factors including alumni salary three years after completing the course and salary increase from before the programme to now.
The ranking also considers faculty research output, graduate feedback on the careers service and how far alumni had achieved their aims during their studies. All of the top 100 institutions that are ranked are accredited by either the US-based AACSB or Europe’s Equis.
MIT alumni reported the third-highest average salaries three years after completing their MBA at $245,991, behind Harvard Business School at $259,874 and Wharton at $246,813, weighted for variations between sectors and adjusted for international purchasing power parity.
The Indian School of Business reported the highest salary increase compared with earnings before the degree, up 248 per cent to $201,712. The schools rated highest for value for money were University of Georgia: Terry in the US, followed by Nanyang Business School, NTU in Singapore.
Wharton came top in the research rank for faculty publications in leading academic journals, followed by Harvard, University of Chicago: Booth, Insead and London Business School.
The strength of alumni networks was rated highest at Dartmouth: Tuck in New Hampshire, Iese in Barcelona and Cornell: Johnson in upstate New York. Rice University: Jones in Houston was top for alumni aims achieved.
More than half of the 100 ranked schools had more than 50 per cent international students, while the share of foreign faculty was as high as 98 per cent at IMD in Switzerland.
In aggregate, UK business schools remain more reliant than their rivals outside Asia on students from the Asia-Pacific region, who comprised 57 per cent of their total intake, compared with 37 per cent in other European schools and 24 per cent in the US and Canada.
Four schools achieved the maximum score for gender parity among students: Audencia and ESCP in France, University of British Columbia: Sauder in Canada and Miami: Herbert in the US. The Indian Institute of Management: Calcutta and IIM Indore each reported just 12 per cent female students.
The gender pay gap among alumni reached its lowest in the past 10 years at 7.1 per cent in 2026.
Two business schools achieved gender parity among faculty: the University of Porto — FEP | PBS in Portugal and Audencia in France. The rest had more male than female academics, with as few as 12 per cent women at XLRI — Xavier School of Management in India.
IE Business School and Iese in Spain and Edhec in France were ranked top for integrating environmental, social and governance topics into their core curriculum, while AGSM at UNSW Business School in Australia, University of California at Berkeley: Haas and IE were highest for efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.
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