Financial Times Master in Management Ranking: St. Gallen Captures Its 15th No. 1

The Master in Strategy and International Management program at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland has topped the Financial Times‘ MiM ranking 15 of the last 16 years

St. Gallen just won’t lose. The tiny Swiss school is once again No. 1 in the Financial Times‘ ranking of the world’s best Master’s in Management programs.

The top spot in the 2026 ranking, released today (September 7), is St. Gallen’s 15th title in the last 16 years. With just 58 students enrolled this year, it has topped the list every single year since 2011 except for one upset by HEC Paris in 2023.

But below the top spot this year, everything else moved: Nova School of Business and Economics, in Portugal, leapt two spots to claim No. 2 – its best finish ever, while Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Antai College climbed three places to No. 3. And two of last year’s top three finishers slid back: INSEAD to No. 4, and HEC Paris – the school that dethroned St. Gallen three years ago – all the way to No. 5.

Two schools posted the sharpest gains inside the top 10. Belgium’s Vlerick Business School leapt eight spots, from 14th to a share of sixth, while Spain’s IESE climbed the same distance, from 16th to eighth. Both are now the highest-ranked programs from their home countries. (See the top 10 below and the full ranking at the bottom of the page.)

FINANCIAL TIMES TOP 10 MASTER’S IN MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS FOR 2026

Rank in 2026	School	Rank in 2025	Location	Value for Money Rank	Aims Achieved	Weighted Salary (US$)	Alumni Network Rank
1	University of St Gallen	1	Switzerland	12	91.0%	$150,490	2
2	Nova School of Business and Economics	4	Portugal	29	92.2%	$131,640	11
3	Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai	6	China	2	85.3%	$135,354	4
4	INSEAD	3	France	81	88.4%	$120,995	8
5	HEC Paris	2	France	44	87.5%	$137,760	9
6=	ESCP Business School	7	France	71	86.6%	$110,466	26
6=	Vlerick Business School	14	Belgium	25	88.0%	$105,101	1
8	Iese Business School	16	Spain	68	87.5%	$119,465	7
9	Stockholm School of Economics	9	Sweden	22	90.0%	$116,970	24
10	Rabat Business School – International University of Rabat	20	Morocco	43	91.3%	$76,905	25

INSIDE THE TOP 10: WHO WINS ON VALUE, GOALS AND ALUMNI TIES

Broken out by value for money, aims achieved, weighted salary, and alumni-network strength, the top 10 splits into schools that win on prestige and pay versus those that win on what alumni actually rate them for day to day.

No school illustrates that split better than Vlerick. Tied for sixth overall, the Belgian program is the No. 1 school in the entire 100-program ranking for alumni-network strength – the only top-ten finisher to top any of these four categories outright. Its value-for-money rank, 25th, is solid but unremarkable, and its $105,101 weighted salary is the lowest of any program ranked ahead of Rabat. Alumni still rate its network the best in the world, even as its own pay trails the pack.

St. Gallen’s case for No. 1 rests far more narrowly on pay. Its $150,490 weighted salary is the highest of any top-10 school, and its alumni-network rank (2nd) is nearly as strong as Vlerick’s. But on value for money, St. Gallen ranks a comparatively modest 12th – proof that a top overall finish and a top value-for-money finish are not the same thing. P&Q noted last year that for all its dominance atop the overall list, St. Gallen trailed 34 other programs on alumni satisfaction and ranked just 69th out of 100 on career progress – evidence that a small, highly selective cohort can outperform on salary-driven metrics while lagging on other measures alumni say matter. This year, that gap has narrowed considerably: St. Gallen’s satisfaction score climbed to 9.33 from 8.93, trailing only six other programs (rather than 34), and its career-progress rank improved to 56th from 69th.

INSEAD stands out for the opposite reason. Despite a 92% employment rate and the third-highest weighted salary in the top 10 ($120,995), its value-for-money rank of 81st is the weakest in the group. ESCP Business School, at 71st, and IESE, at 68th, aren’t far ahead of it. All three suggest alumni feel they paid a premium for the brand.

On aims achieved – the share of alumni who say the program delivered on what they personally set out to do – Nova School of Business and Economics leads the top ten at 92.2%, with Rabat close behind at 91.3% and St. Gallen at 91.0%. Shanghai Jiao Tong’s Antai College, despite climbing to No. 3 overall on the strength of a No. 2 value-for-money rank and a No. 4 alumni-network rank, posted the lowest aims-achieved score in the top ten at 85.3%.

AN AFRICAN PROGRAM CRACKS THE TOP 10 FOR THE FIRST TIME

The biggest story in this year’s top 10 belongs to Morocco’s Rabat Business School, part of the International University of Rabat, which rose to 10th place after finishing 20th in 2025 and 32nd in 2024 – a two-year climb of 22 spots. It is the first time an African program has reached the top 10 of the Financial Times MiM ranking. Rabat Business School has been the only school from Africa (or the Middle East) on the list since it debuted in 2022 at 86th, and Moroccan press accounts have described its jump to 20th last year as the first time any African program had reached the FT‘s global top 20 at all – a milestone it has now roughly doubled by cracking the top ten outright.

Poets&Quants profiled the school in a January 2026 interview with dean Nicolas Arnaud, who noted that the FT MiM ranking had just eight schools from outside Western countries when he first studied it six years ago, compared with 15 today. Rabat’s own numbers back up the trend: its alumni reported an 81.8% jump in salary between finishing the program and today, among the largest increases of any school in the ranking, and its graduates gave the program a 9.67 satisfaction score, the highest of any school in the top 20. Its weighted salary figure, $76,905, is the lowest in the top ten, a reminder that the FT‘s composite score rewards trajectory and alumni sentiment as much as raw pay.

THE U.S. ABSENCE, ONCE AGAIN

As far back as 2019, P&Q has noted that the Financial Times list contained none of the major American MiM programs despite such world-class programs as those at Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Michigan Ross, Yale SOM, USC Marshall and Duke Fuqua. The theme has recurred nearly every September since as U.S. schools have largely declined to participate in the FT‘s MiM survey.

This year, just two U.S. schools appear anywhere in the FT’s top 100: Hult International Business School, which has long been the lone U.S. B-school on the list, slipped six places to a share of 48th, and Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, a first-time entrant, debuted at a share of 92nd. Georgetown’s result comes with a caveat worth noting – the FT was able to survey only 43% of its recent graduating class, one of the lowest response rates in the ranking, and its career-progress rank (99th out of 100) is among the weakest in the entire list.

The University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business, which had been the second U.S. entrant in 2025 at No. 94, does not appear in the 2026 ranking at all. By contrast, France alone places 23 programs in the top 100 – nearly a quarter of the entire list – followed by India with 14 and the United Kingdom with nine.

One notable readmission on the French side is TBS Education, which has campuses in Toulouse, Paris, Barcelona, and Casablanca. TBS is back on the list at a share of 81st after vanishing from the 2025 ranking entirely following a scandal in which a 2022 graduate publicly alleged, in a LinkedIn post, that the school had instructed alumni to inflate reported salaries and understate tuition costs ahead of the FT‘s alumni survey. The FT confirmed at the time that it had opened an investigation. TBS Education had appeared on the ranking every year from 2006 through 2024, peaking at 16th in 2010, before its removal last year broke a 19-year streak.

HOW THE RANKING WORKS

The FT MiM ranking evaluates pre-experience master’s programs across 19 weighted criteria that sum to 100%. The single heaviest factor is weighted salary (15%), the average alumni salary three years after graduation, adjusted for sector variation and converted to purchasing-power-parity dollars – a methodology choice that can significantly inflate reported figures in lower-cost countries. Salary percentage increase adds another 9%, and a broader alumni career-progress cluster – value-for-money rank (6%), career-progress rank (6%), aims-achieved percentage (6%), careers-service rank (5%), alumni-network rank (3%) and employment rate at three months (5%) – brings the pay-and-outcomes share of the score to roughly half the total.

The remaining criteria split into two clusters. School diversity covers female faculty (5%), female students (5%), women on the advisory board (1%), international faculty (5%), international students (5%) and international board representation (1%). International experience and sustainability cover international work-mobility rank (6%), international course-experience rank (6%), faculty with doctorates (4%), ESG and net-zero teaching rank (3%) and carbon-footprint rank (4%). Three additional data points – average course length, 2025-26 enrollment and overall alumni satisfaction – are published for context only and carry no weight in the calculation.

The FT also groups the 100 ranked programs into four tiers based on their composite scores, separated by the bold lines visible in the published table: eight schools make Tier I, 32 make Tier II, 51 make Tier III and the remaining nine make Tier IV.

FINANCIAL TIMES 100 BEST MASTER IN MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS – 2026

Rank in 2026	School	Rank in 2025	Location	Value for Money Rank	Aims Achieved	Weighted Salary (US$)	Alumni Network Rank
1	University of St Gallen	1	Switzerland	12	91.0%	$150,490	2
2	Nova School of Business and Economics	4	Portugal	29	92.2%	$131,640	11
3	Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai	6	China	2	85.3%	$135,354	4
4	INSEAD	3	France	81	88.4%	$120,995	8
5	HEC Paris	2	France	44	87.5%	$137,760	9
6=	ESCP Business School	7	France	71	86.6%	$110,466	26
6=	Vlerick Business School	14	Belgium	25	88.0%	$105,101	1
8	Iese Business School	16	Spain	68	87.5%	$119,465	7
9	Stockholm School of Economics	9	Sweden	22	90.0%	$116,970	24
10	Rabat Business School – International University of Rabat	20	Morocco	43	91.3%	$76,905	25
11	Prague University of Economics and Business	17	Czech Republic	23	87.4%	$101,296	30
12	EMLyon Business School	12	France	84	88.0%	$106,239	12
13=	Essec Business School	10	France	70	86.6%	$116,422	21
13=	Skema Business School	18	France	51	87.1%	$97,455	17
13=	Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University	–	Netherlands	14	89.0%	$113,556	64
16	London Business School	10	UK	73	90.9%	$119,990	27
17=	Edhec Business School	14	France	77	86.9%	$112,775	28
17=	Paris School of Business	43	France	36	93.5%	$94,098	99
19	WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management	22	Germany	35	89.3%	$140,877	3
20	SDA Bocconi/Università Bocconi	13	Italy	52	88.2%	$109,250	20
21=	WU Vienna University of Economics and Business	18	Austria	11	85.7%	$118,864	39
21=	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore	28	India	65	83.4%	$189,428	19
23	IE Business School	27	Spain	97	85.9%	$94,456	36
24	Iéseg School of Management	26	France	46	86.9%	$89,585	55
25	Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics	30	Portugal	41	88.6%	$99,125	54
26	SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR)	35	India	50	85.1%	$166,372	6
27=	University College Dublin: Smurfit	33	Ireland	27	88.1%	$104,175	18
27=	Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad	34	India	57	82.7%	$199,706	23
29	University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business	44	Slovenia	4	86.9%	$73,993	44
30	Luiss University/Luiss Business School	32	Italy	66	83.5%	$73,738	51
31	Esade Business School	24	Spain	59	83.1%	$114,003	48
32	University of Mannheim	28	Germany	21	86.7%	$118,678	13
33	XLRI – Xavier School of Management	58	India	76	84.1%	$183,994	14
34	University of Cologne	37	Germany	18	85.4%	$122,131	38
35	ESMT Berlin	22	Germany	67	89.5%	$94,301	16
36	Audencia	–	France	90	86.7%	$84,145	45
37	Neoma Business School	30	France	63	83.8%	$81,536	62
38	Imperial Business School	47	UK	91	83.8%	$88,887	72
39=	GEM	20	France	53	85.8%	$82,133	93
39=	Indian Institute of Management Calcutta	41	India	72	82.8%	$179,953	15
41	Eada Business School Barcelona	36	Spain	85	84.0%	$79,228	75
42	HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management	46	Germany	30	88.1%	$139,768	5
43	Kozminski University	54	Poland	56	84.3%	$63,751	79
44	ZHAW School of Management and Law	58	Switzerland	3	85.2%	$103,114	91
45	Excelia Business School	39	France	40	83.9%	$75,495	78
46	Frankfurt School of Finance and Management	62	Germany	64	88.1%	$106,836	22
47	ISM University of Management and Economics	–	Lithuania	7	84.7%	$103,693	33
48=	Hult International Business School	42	US	78	85.2%	$86,292	73
48=	Louvain School of Management, UCLouvain	74	Belgium	5	83.9%	$94,384	56
48=	Bayes Business School	65	UK	93	78.9%	$84,704	92
51	University of Sydney Business School	77	Australia	80	81.9%	$77,006	34
52	Polimi School of Management	51	Italy	24	81.2%	$73,568	40
53	University Carlos III de Madrid	61	Spain	45	85.1%	$70,102	41
54	Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode	69	India	86	80.9%	$138,515	43
55	Lund University School of Economics and Management (Lusem)	47	Sweden	8	84.7%	$76,143	10
56=	Warwick Business School	40	UK	94	80.0%	$74,395	69
56=	Hanken School of Economics	60	Finland	9	84.7%	$64,948	57
58	HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne	75	Switzerland	19	79.8%	$103,005	100
59	ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics and Management	–	Portugal	31	81.9%	$55,475	95
60=	MBS (Montpellier Business School)	50	France	42	81.0%	$73,373	70
60=	Kedge Business School	56	France	75	82.6%	$78,345	76
62=	Iscte Business School	87	Portugal	37	80.1%	$61,032	77
62=	Indian Institute of Management Indore	85	India	69	82.2%	$136,137	35
64=	Antwerp Management School	91	Belgium	38	84.7%	$76,085	98
64=	Western University: Ivey	81	Canada	48	86.4%	$91,918	58
66	Católica Porto Business School	95	Portugal	28	80.3%	$55,831	94
67	Management Development Institute Gurgaon	72	India	74	83.0%	$151,603	32
68=	Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Business School	38	Ireland	47	83.0%	$76,939	90
68=	Institut Mines-Télécom Business School	53	France	15	82.8%	$73,563	37
68=	Singapore Management University: Lee Kong Chian	64	Singapore	98	83.1%	$81,722	52
68=	Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics	65	Netherlands	10	83.1%	$83,541	60
72	Indian Institute of Management Lucknow	57	India	60	82.4%	$158,215	42
73	NMIMS Mumbai, School of Business Management	–	India	96	81.5%	$127,988	53
74	IAE Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management	71	France	17	83.1%	$79,176	66
75=	EM Strasbourg Business School	45	France	49	83.7%	$71,115	71
75=	Henley Business School	–	UK	83	81.6%	$56,571	85
77	Esdes Business School	93	France	39	89.1%	$75,577	47
78=	EBS Business School	52	Germany	32	85.5%	$102,555	29
78=	Burgundy School of Business	49	France	62	84.4%	$75,176	81
80	Tum School of Management	54	Germany	26	84.8%	$116,933	74
81=	BI Norwegian Business School	88	Norway	34	85.7%	$78,686	87
81=	TBS Education	–	France	89	82.3%	$74,042	67
83=	Essca School of Management	68	France	61	80.3%	$73,900	65
83=	Indian Institute of Management Udaipur	98	India	87	81.3%	$113,014	31
85	Tias Business School, Tilburg University	78	Netherlands	33	84.2%	$78,664	97
86	Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad	–	India	92	77.7%	$109,297	68
87	Nyenrode Business Universiteit	76	Netherlands	54	83.3%	$82,884	46
88=	Aalto University	–	Finland	16	85.2%	$73,800	88
88=	NHH Norwegian School of Economics	83	Norway	13	87.0%	$83,820	59
90	IMI Delhi	99	India	99	80.4%	$90,813	80
91	Jönköping International Business School	78	Sweden	20	83.4%	$78,106	49
92=	Georgetown University: McDonough	–	US	58	84.2%	$111,132	63
92=	King’s Business School, King’s College London	–	UK	100	82.8%	$62,478	61
94=	Rennes School of Business	92	France	55	81.0%	$76,440	83
94=	University of Edinburgh Business School	100	UK	88	82.0%	$70,572	84
94=	Copenhagen Business School (CBS)	–	Denmark	1	82.2%	$91,483	96
97	Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB)	90	Belgium	6	79.6%	$80,820	50
98	TA Pai Management Institute	–	India	95	80.1%	$91,285	86
99	Cranfield School of Management	69	UK	79	83.2%	$70,494	82
100	Alliance Manchester Business School	96	UK	82	79.3%	$74,612	89

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