Today, we have released the QS Global MBA, QS Global Business Master’s and QS Online MBA rankings for 2026.
The three projects feature a comprehensive analysis of 1,446 Graduate Management Education (GME) programmes from 637 unique institutions worldwide.
The rankings evaluate the performance of institutions across leading full-time MBA programmes and five key business subjects: Marketing, Management, Finance, Business Analytics, and Supply Chain Management.
QS Global MBA Rankings 2026 in brief
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania is our new top-ranked institution, with Harvard Business School and MIT (Sloan) rounding out the top three. Stanford Graduate School of Business falls from top spot, down to fourth. INSEAD and Northwestern (Kellogg) break into the top 10.
The United States continues to have the most ranked institutions (124), though 66 did move down the ranking.
The top 10:
1. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
2. Harvard Business School
3. MIT (Sloan)
4. Stanford Graduate School of Business
5. HEC Paris
6. London Business School
7. University of Cambridge (Judge)
8. INSEAD
9. Northwestern (Kellogg)
10. Columbia Business School
Outside the top 10, France’s Grenoble Ecole de Management is the biggest climber, moving up 26 places, improving in four out of the five analysed indicators. Alliance Manchester Business School has the biggest upward move in the top 50, climbing eight places to 39.
Indicator-level trends
12% of institutions improved their Student Gender Ratio by more than 10 points, the highest in any indicator. International Student Ratio is the second highest with 10.5% of institutions improving, with the UK, US, and Canada claiming seven of the top 10 biggest upward moves.
Asia has five of the top 10 biggest upward movements in Entrepreneurship, with Thailand the only location with more than one institution in the list. Peruvian institutions claim three of the top ten biggest upward moves in Return on Investment.
Indonesian institutions claim two of the top ten biggest upward moves in Payback Month.
Get the full table on TopMBA.com.
QS Global Business Master’s Rankings 2026 in brief
As with previous years, we have broken our Global Business Master’s Rankings into five key subjects. Below are the top five of each area – head to TopUniversities.com for the full results.
Top five: Master’s in Business Analytics
=1 MIT (Sloan)
=1. UCLA (Anderson)
2. Ecole Polytechnique / HEC Paris
4. Essec/CentraleSupélec
5. Columbia Business School
Beyond the top five, Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management entered the top 10. The US has the highest number of ranked institutions (79), but as seen in the Global MBA Rankings, it also has the most institutions moving down (49). In a competitive ranking, Warwick Business School is the biggest climber, rising four places, driven by strong ROI and Payback Month scores, and improving Employer and Academic Reputation.
Top five: Master’s in Finance
1. HEC Paris
2. University of Oxford (Saïd)
3. MIT (Sloan)
4. University of Cambridge (Judge)
5. London Business School
Our main story is HEC Paris overtaking the University of Oxford (Saïd) to claim top spot. The top 10 has seen a few shifts, with HEC Paris, University of Cambridge (Judge), London School of Economics, Yale School of Management and UCLA (Anderson) all improving their position. Elsewhere, the biggest climber is Arizona State (Carey), moving up 22 places to 65. Purdue (Krannert) climbs eight places and breaks into the top 50.
Top five: Master’s in Management
1. HEC Paris
2. London Business School
3. Essec Business School
4. CEMS
5. INSEAD
Eight of this year’s top 10 improved their position, with CEMS and Imperial College Business School improving by six positions. London Business School, moving up two ranks to second, saw a significant increase in ROI and Staff with PhD scores. The biggest climber is IQS/FJU/LMU, moving up 21 places to 70, primarily because of their improvement in Employer Reputation score.
Top five: Master’s in Marketing
1. HEC Paris
2. ESSEC Business School
3. ESCP Business School
4. Columbia Business School
5. IE University
In the top 10, ESCP, Columbia Business School and Warwick Business School all improve one place. However, HEC Paris and ESSEC Business School retain their first and second position respectively. The UIK has the most institutions moving up (six).
Top five: Master’s in Supply Chain Management
=1 ESSEC Business School
=1. Michigan (Ross)
2. WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
3. Erasmus (RSM)
4. EMLYON Business School
5. USC (Marshall)
In its debut, ESSEC Business School ranks =1 alongside Michigan (Ross). Seven of the top 10 institutions maintained their positions – the remaining three are all new entrants. Copenhagen Business School, La Salle Universitat Ramon Llull and Leeds University Business School placed seventh, eighth, and 10th respectively. Outside the top 10, University of Bristol Business School is the biggest climber, moving up five places to =40. Politecnico di Milano, Trinity Business School, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology all dropped four places, and out of the top 10.
Global graduate management education trends
In our Global MBA and Global Business Master’s rankings, no region saw great gains this year – the top performing region was Central America, with 21% of their institutions improving. If we focus on locations with more than 10 ranked institutions, France, China, the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan all saw over 20% of their institutions improve their rank; however, in all cases, more institutions moved down.
Value for Money and Diversity are the two lenses with the biggest positive score changes among institutions moving up, suggesting these areas are of increased focus for business schools.
QS Online MBA Ranking 2026 results in brief
Imperial College Business School, IE Business School and Warwick Business School maintain their top three rank. The University of Florida (Warrington) improved by seven positions to break into the top 10. Also entering the top 10 is Durham University Business School (up nine places), and Florida International University College of Business (up one place).
1. Imperial College Business School
2. IE Business School
3. Warwick Business School
4. AGSM @ UNSW Business School
5. Indiana University (Kelley Direct Programs)
6. Alliance Manchester Business School
7. Carnegie Mellon University
8. University of Florida (Warrington)
9. Southern California (Marshall)
=10. Durham University Business School
=10. Florida International University College of Business
Access the full table on TopMBA.com
Online MBA trends
Seven institutions in the top 10 maintained their positions. The US has the most ranked institutions (60), and had the most institutions move up (five), and down (37). Upward moves tended to be driven by improvements in Class Profile, whereas several of the biggest downward moves were because of drops in our Class Experience indicator.
India has its first three ranked Online MBA programmes, all at the Indian Institute of Management – Kozhikode.
A focus on the US and Europe
US fast facts:
- Across the three projects, the US has the highest number of new entrants (21).
- It also had the highest number of dropouts of our Global MBA and Business Master’s (nine). 46% of institutions moved down, while 16% moved up, and 21% stayed the same.
- Although the US has the highest number of unique institutions ranked in Global MBA, Europe outpaces it across all of the Business Masters rankings.
- The US has 13 of the top 20 biggest improvers in Master’s in Finance.
- In our Research Impact indicator, the US has 60% of the top 50 biggest score decreases – these decreases are concentrated in Master’s in Business Analytics.
Europe fast facts:
- Among locations with 10 or more institutions, France has the joint highest percentage of institutions moving up (24%) across Global MBA and Business Masters, but the UK, which is just behind it on 23%, has a smaller % moving down.
- Belgium has the highest overall percentage (%) of institutions moving down across Global MBA and Business Masters.
- Spain has the top four biggest score improvements in Employer Reputation across Global MBA and Business Masters.
- Europe has nine of the top 10 biggest score increases in Master’s in Management across both Graduate Employment Rate and Return on Investment.
- In the Master’s in Management ranking, four of the top 10 biggest improvers in Academic Reputation are Spanish, while Italy has two of the top five biggest falls in Master’s in Finance.
- Eight of the top 10 biggest score increases in Student Gender Ratio across Global MBA and the Business Masters are in Europe.
- The UK has eight of the top 20 largest score decreases in International Student Ratio across Global MBA and the Business Masters.
