Meet The MiM7+1: The Top European Master In Management Programs

SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy

Location isn’t everything — but sometimes it’s a lot. And few schools are as well-placed as Milan’s thoroughbred business school, slap-bang at the intersection of northern Italy’s storied banking sector, world-class manufacturing industries and globally recognized fashion brands. Bocconi sits at the center of it all. The city itself is home to 200,000 students, 14,000 of whom are at Bocconi.

The MiM is a two-year program whose first year consists of core subjects, albeit with mouth-watering “majors” such as Fashion, Luxury and Made in Italy, and Sports Management — north Italy is home to several of the world’s most illustrious soccer teams, after all.

In the second year, participants can take a double degree at one of several top-flight global schools, take a “free track” consisting of several electives, learn languages, write a thesis or take an internship, either in Italy or elsewhere.

Weighted salaries for graduates might be slightly lower than from other MiMs, but 100 percent of the most recent cohort — which, at 185, is on the large side — had jobs three months after graduation. Add in the pleasure of living, and eating, in Milan for a couple of years, and the deal looks pretty tasty.

ESADE, Barcelona, Spain

Of Spain’s top-class business schools Barcelona-based Esade narrowly got the nod for the MiM7 on the say-so of several course directors at other schools. “It is slightly more visible in the MiM market,” said one.

For over half a century, ESADE has been turning out great graduates, and if there is one thing that sets it apart it is a focus on sustainability and responsible business practices. The program director has published work in the CSR area, and — unusually — core courses include Economics and the Global Environment, and two on Business in Society which look at, for instance, sustainability.

Most of ESADE’s students have a degree in business administration or economics, and others take the pre-program Business Integration Path to get them up to speed. Interestingly, ESADE very much sees its MiM as running alongside its other MSc programs, and participants share the same course structure (and some classes) with those taking the Master’s in Finance, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, International Management and Marketing Management. That’s got to be good for networking.

ESADE MiM participants have the option to extend the MiM into a second year, either on CEMS (see below), a second master’s degree, or a double degree at a partner school.

London Business School, London, UK

Forget Brexit. Whatever the UK’s future relationship with the EU, you can rest assured that London will remain a global center for business. LBS says that it has seen no drop in applications, despite the political chaos. London remains the world’s preeminent financial center and Europe’s most populous city, and it attracts global talent; the most recent MiM cohort had 40 nationalities, with just 7% from the UK., 49% from non-UK European countries, and 24% from Southeast or East Asia.

LBS has one of the bigger MiM intakes, at around 200, but it is extremely effective at finding them jobs. Fifty percent of LBS MiMs find employment in the UK, and 26% in the rest of Europe, making an LBS degree an extremely effective springboard into the Continent. In terms of sectors, 45% went into consulting, and 25% into finance.

That’s perhaps not surprising when you realise that 72% of the 2018 cohort studied either business, management, economics, accounting, or finance. LBS allows its MiMs to extend their stay from 12 to 16 months, so students can take three more electives and go on an international exchange if they want to take a deeper dive before plunging into the world of work.

The London effect remains strong, despite some temporary glitches.

Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, Netherlands

If having a big name on your resume matters to you, then RSM ought to be on any shortlist. Erasmus Rotterdam University is named after the 15th-century humanist, and one of the biggest cheeses in European intellectual history. One recent RSM graduate, whose first degree was in his home Easter European country, told Poets and Quants: “Nobody has heard of the school where I did my degree. This is my chance to reinvent myself as an Erasmus student.”

This is amplified by the fact that, unlike some MiMs, which take a large number of participants with a business degree, this MiM is aimed squarely at graduates who have never studied business before.

Jobwise, you couldn’t be much better located. Rotterdam is a fantastic gateway to northern Europe, being one of the region’s foremost business hubs, and home to its largest port. It’s a short train journey to Paris, Brussels, London, Amsterdam and the Western German cities.

This MiM is also stunning value for money. In terms of living costs, Rotterdam is also more affordable than, say, Paris or London, and more liveable. The Dutch government contributes to costs for students from European Economic Area (EEA), bringing the course fees down to just €2,083 for a 12-month program. (It’s €18,200 for non-EEA residents.)