French management schools join leaders in the Financial Times ranking

This year, 21 French schools joined the ranking (down from 25 in 2019), but the number of institutions analysed by the Financial Times was reduced from 100 to 90 this year.

Masters in management at a turning point

The Financial Times commented the results saying that 2020 is a “turning point for masters in management degrees” (MiM).  Indeed, in 2019, “when the global economy was motoring and jobs markets were booming in Europe and the US, most business schools offering this postgraduate qualification were reporting a decline in demand”.
 But the Financial Times states that “The pandemic has only increased interest in the MiM”, a situation that can be compared to 2008, during the global financial crisis.

Top 3 and Top 10 almost unchanged

Looking closer to the ranking, we can see that the leading trio of best courses in management hasn’t changed. HEC (Paris) kept its second European place and is the first French institution. Essec Business School also stays third in Europe and second in France.

On a broader look at the Top 10, ESCP Business School is still third in France despite a rank lost from six to five at European scale.

Noteworthy progress in the general ranking

However, about a dozen of French institutions registered more or less spectacular progresses. For example, Edhec Business School jumped 3 ranks to 16th globally and 4th in France. NEOMA Business School continues its progress going from 43th to 28th, becoming 5th in France.

EM Lyon progressed from the 40th to 29th rank (6th in France), just like La Rochelle Business School, registering a +18 ranks to 48th in Europe, while Essca jumped 7 ranks (63 to 56). To be noted that Paris School of Business entered the global ranking and reached the 88th rank.

Strict criteria

To design the 16th annual MiM ranking, the FT commented that “schools must comply with strict criteria to be eligible”. Their “programmes must be full-time” and have “a minimum of 30 graduates each year”. Finally, the FT added that “schools must be accredited by the AACSB or Equis”.
The rankings are then “calculated on the basis of information gathered through two separate surveys”, one of the schools and the other of the alumni.

In concrete terms, the rankings are based on 17 criteria, including: the career of alumni (salaries, hiring rate), representation of diversity (women/men in the student and faculty population), the importance of internationality (percentage of international students, foreign professors), and the quality of teaching (professors holding a doctorate).