FT Global MBA Ranking 2016: London Business School retains UK top spot

London Business School (LBS) remains the UK’s highest-ranked institution in the Financial Times’ Global MBA Rankings, despite having dropped a place to third in the 2016 list.

Insead – which has campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi – climbed three places to knock Harvard Business School off the top spot. It is the first time since 2012 that the Boston institution has not been number one. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Stanford Graduate Business School make up the rest of the top five.

In a lean year for UK business schools, the only other representative in the top 20 was the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, which rose three places from 13 to enter the top 10.

The next best placed UK institution was the Said Business School at the University of Oxford, which remained in the top 30, having dropped from 22 to 28. 

The table is based on a number of criteria, but alumni salaries carry the most importance with weighted salary and salary increase accounting for 40 per cent of the overall ranking.

At LBS, the average alumnus earns $154,150 (£107,950), when adjusted for variations between sectors, three years after graduation. Although this is the lowest average salary of all the schools in the top 10, LBS graduates enjoy a salary increase of 100 per cent on their previous earnings. This is only bettered by the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School (107 per cent) in the top 10.

Julia Tyler, associate dean of degree programmes at London Business School, said that the institution was “pleased to maintain its top three position in the rankings” and to “remain the highest-ranked UK programme”.

“Our MBA has been in the top 10 since the rankings began, demonstrating its enduring leadership in a highly competitive and increasingly international environment,” she said.

The US continued its dominance in the ranking, claiming seven of the top 10 spots.

View last year’s table