ESCP Tops FT’s 2026 Masters In Finance Ranking For The 4th Straight Year

ESCP Business School has once again been named the world’s best provider of a pre-experience master’s in finance, topping the Financial Times‘ 2026 ranking for the fourth consecutive year. The result extends a run that began in 2023, when ESCP overtook HEC Paris to end the latter’s 11-year hold on the No. 1 spot.

The FT‘s pre-experience Masters in Finance ranking, published today (June 15), evaluates 70 programs worldwide for students entering directly from undergraduate study, drawing on alumni surveys taken three years after graduation along with data submitted by the schools themselves. (See the full table below.)

FRANCE’S 4 IN THE TOP 5

Behind ESCP, Skema Business School holds steady at No. 2 and ESSEC Business School at No. 4, both unchanged from last year. The biggest story at the top of the table belongs to EDHEC Business School, which vaults straight back into fifth place after sitting out the 2025 edition entirely – the most striking re-entry of this year’s ranking.

EDHEC’s return comes at the expense of HEC Paris, which slips two places to seventh. Nova School of Business and Economics also drops two spots, to eighth, while emlyon business school climbs two places to 11th, the best showing among the second tier of French schools. 

In total, 12 French programs appear in this year’s ranking, more than any other country, though the rest of the French contingent had a rougher year: Iéseg School of Management fell seven places to 22nd, GEM dropped six to 28th, and Neoma Business School slid three to 27th. Rennes School of Business and Toulouse School of Management round out the French presence at 35th and 49th, respectively.

ASIAN SALARIES LEAD THE PACK

Once again, the highest reported salaries in the ranking belong to schools in China. Graduates of the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance at SJTU, which climbs one place to sixth overall, report an average salary three years after graduation of $218,057 – tops in the entire ranking. Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, steady at No. 3, follows at $209,000.

MIT Sloan returns to the ranking after an absence, landing at No. 25 but posting the third-highest salary on the list at $195,072 and remaining the top-ranked U.S. program by a wide margin. Among European schools, ESCP’s graduates report the highest salary at $183,214, ahead of HEC Paris ($175,483) and Oxford Saïd, which reports $168,873 – the third-highest figure in Europe and a notable data point behind its jump up the table.

THE BIGGEST MOVERS

Oxford Saïd posts the largest climb inside the top 20, rising five places to 13th, where it ties with Vlerick Business School. Further down, Bayes Business School makes the steepest overall jump in the ranking, rising 13 places to 16th. Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics climbs four places to 19th, and Kozminski University in Poland jumps 10 places to 24th.

On the other side of the ledger, the University of St Gallen suffers the sharpest fall inside the top 20, dropping six places to 15th after sitting at ninth a year ago. International University of Monaco falls three places to 20th, and Warwick Business School drops 12 places to 37th, one of the steepest declines anywhere in the table.

VALUE FOR MONEY OUTLIERS

The FT‘s separate value-for-money measure tells a different story than the headline ranking. Tsinghua and the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance take the top two spots for value for money, reflecting strong salaries relative to cost. 

The biggest surprise, however, is Toulouse School of Management, which ranks just 49th overall but third in the world for value for money – far outpacing its overall position. ZHAW School of Management and Law (48th overall) and HEC Lausanne (38th overall) round out the value-for-money top five at fourth and fifth, respectively. 

Among the top-ranked schools, ESCP comes in 13th for value for money, with Skema at 18th and ESSEC at 20th.

WHAT MAKES ESCP NUMBER 1

ESCP’s Master in Finance, taught with a Global Track option alongside specializations in Corporate Investment Banking and Financial Markets, has now ranked first for alumni network and career services for four consecutive years, with 100% of graduates employed within three months of graduation. The program also takes the top spot for aims achieved, with 98% of respondents saying they met their professional goals, and posts the highest overall satisfaction score in the ranking at 9.75 out of 10. ESCP ranks second worldwide for both international course experience and international work mobility.

“This achievement is a testament to the excellence of our entire community,” says Philippe Thomas, ESCP’s academic director of the Master in Finance, crediting the result to the alumni, faculty, and staff behind the program. Léon Laulusa, ESCP’s executive president and dean, frames the result as validation of the school’s effort to cultivate what he calls students’ “mad skills” – unconventional talents layered on top of technical, leadership, and ethical training.

The curriculum pairs core coursework in financial economics and business ethics with a mandatory four-month internship and a master’s thesis grounded in academic research. Students come from backgrounds spanning engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, literature, and political science and represent a wide range of nationalities, and the program now feeds into a global ESCP alumni network of more than 90,000.

HOW THE RANKING IS COMPILED

The FT‘s pre-experience Masters in Finance ranking is built from 19 weighted indicators, with alumni survey responses accounting for the majority of each school’s score and the remainder drawn from data the schools themselves report. Salary three years after graduation carries the single highest weighting among those indicators, alongside measures of salary growth, career progression, international mobility, diversity, and the share of teaching devoted to ESG topics. 

The FT also publishes a separate, much shorter post-experience ranking for programs aimed at students who already have professional experience in finance.

2026 FINANCIAL TIMES MASTERS IN FINANCE PRE-EXPERIENCE RANKING

2026 Rank	School	Country	Salary Today (U.S. $)	Value for Money Rank	2025 Rank
1	ESCP Business School	France	183,214	13	1
2	Skema Business School	France	159,879	18	2
3	Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management	China	209,000	1	3
4	Essec Business School	France	166,715	20	4
5	Edhec Business School	France	155,178	35	–
6	Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance at SJTU	China	218,057	2	7
7	HEC Paris	France	175,483	22	5
8	Nova School of Business and Economics	Portugal	150,126	19	6
9	London Business School	UK	149,923	50	8
10	IE Business School	Spain	145,562	52	12
11	emlyon business school	France	129,689	24	13
12	Esade Business School	Spain	149,286	45	11
13	University of Oxford: Saïd	UK	168,873	48	18
13	Vlerick Business School	Belgium	114,470	16	14
15	University of St Gallen	Switzerland	154,764	9	9
16	Bayes Business School	UK	108,225	54	29
17	Imperial Business School	UK	132,564	56	16
18	Luiss University/Luiss Business School	Italy	98,926	40	20
19	Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics	Portugal	103,974	25	23
20	International University of Monaco	Monaco	98,418	41	17
21	CUHK Business School	Hong Kong	131,631	58	21
22	Iéseg School of Management	France	88,793	29	15
23	Stockholm School of Economics	Sweden	118,134	10	26
24	Kozminski University	Poland	72,112	38	34
25	MIT: Sloan	US	195,072	59	–
26	SDA Bocconi/Università Bocconi	Italy	130,786	32	19
27	Neoma Business School	France	80,756	39	24
28	GEM	France	105,612	28	22
29	WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management	Germany	137,358	37	29
30	EBS Business School	Germany	130,223	27	37
31	University Carlos III de Madrid	Spain	81,417	21	31
32	Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University	Netherlands	103,867	12	28
33	ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics and Management	Portugal	83,990	23	27
34	Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Business School	Ireland	83,477	46	33
35	Rennes School of Business	France	86,513	31	39
36	Eada Business School Barcelona	Spain	85,234	62	35
37	Warwick Business School	UK	87,888	64	25
38	HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne	Switzerland	112,241	5	44
39	Hult International Business School	US	95,855	61	48
40	Fordham University: Gabelli	US	121,865	49	–
41	Frankfurt School of Finance and Management	Germany	121,578	51	32
42	Cranfield School of Management	UK	90,267	55	49
43	McGill University: Desautels	Canada	102,869	44	38
43	University of Porto – FEP | PBS	Portugal	56,452	7	41
43	Audencia	France	65,339	33	40
46	Henley Business School	UK	78,492	57	36
47	Iscte Business School	Portugal	58,887	17	–
48	ZHAW School of Management and Law	Switzerland	116,504	4	50
49	Toulouse School of Management	France	78,163	3	45
49	University of Edinburgh Business School	UK	72,600	66	50
49	University of Texas at Austin: McCombs	US	123,377	42	55
52	Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management	Netherlands	78,539	8	52
53	Bentley University	US	119,351	30	42
54	Católica Porto Business School	Portugal	50,555	36	63
55	VU Amsterdam School of Business and Economics	Netherlands	82,342	11	61
56	Lancaster University Management School	UK	73,039	53	53
57	Lund University School of Economics and Management (Lusem)	Sweden	75,508	6	42
58	University of Exeter Business School	UK	64,399	65	54
59	Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad	India	89,038	69	66
60	Durham University Business School	UK	62,208	67	58
61	BI Norwegian Business School	Norway	80,306	43	56
62	SGH Warsaw School of Economics	Poland	67,408	15	70
63	Corvinus University of Budapest	Hungary	64,312	14	69
64	University College Dublin: Smurfit	Ireland	73,034	47	59
65	Texas A&M University: Mays	US	121,625	26	–
66	Nottingham University Business School	UK	53,973	68	63
67	Brandeis University School of Business and Economics	US	109,250	63	–
67	University of Liverpool Management School	UK	73,838	60	–
69	IMI Delhi	India	82,786	70	68
70	UPF Barcelona School of Management	Spain	71,956	34	–

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