Bloomberg Businessweek names the world's best business schools

Bloomberg Businessweek has published its ranking of the world's best business schools for the 2026/27 academic year. The ranking includes 98 institutions with programs conducted in English (predominantly).

Notably, this ranking closely examined how AI affects MBA programs: the role of students and faculty in the learning process, the use of AI in course materials, the preparation of final research projects, and so on. It turned out that not all business schools are yet ready to use AI actively and on a regular basis, while students already use neural networks constantly. At the same time, the influence of the human factor has grown: students increasingly choose not just a highly ranked and prestigious program, but also the experience of the faculty, the opportunity to work with peers from different countries, and the prospect of joint projects — that is, what a neural network cannot provide.

How the ranking was compiled

Three groups of respondents were defined:

1. Graduates who are still planning to complete the course or completed it before 01.10.2025 (4,842 people),
2. Longer-standing graduates: from 2017 to 2020 (7,861 people),
3. Employers who hired holders of MBA degrees in 2023-2025 (617 respondents).

The ranking and assessment were conducted in two stages:

1. The importance of 4 key indicators: quality of education, networking, entrepreneurial activity, and salary level. Scores were given on a five-point scale. The scores were summed, and adjustments were allowed based on the weight of the respondent groups: “longer-standing” graduates — 40%, employers — 35%, “recent” graduates — 25%.
2. The schools' scores on these criteria were calculated on a 7-point scale, which was converted to a 100-point scale after all adjustments.

So, which business schools became the best in their regions?

USA

In total, the ranking includes 68 schools from the USA.

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business (for the eighth year in a row),
2. The Wharton School     (University of Pennsylvania),
3. Harvard Business School,
4. Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University),
5. Darden School of Business (University of Virginia),
6. Tuck School of Business     (Dartmouth College),
7. Chicago Booth,
8. Haas School of Business (University of California, Berkeley),
9. Johnson Graduate School of Management (Cornell University),
10. MIT Sloan School of Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Europe and the Middle East

The ranking includes 19 business schools from this region.

1. International Institute for Management Development (IMD) (Switzerland),
2. Bocconi School of Management (SDA Bocconi) (Italy),
3. IE Business School (Spain),
4. University of St. Gallen   (Switzerland),
5. IESE Business School (Spain),
6. London Business School (United Kingdom),
7. European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) (France),
8. Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford (United Kingdom),
9. Mannheim Business School (Germany),
10. ESADE Business School (Spain).

Asia-Pacific region

The ranking includes 8 business schools:

1. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (China),
2. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore        (India),
3. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (China, Hong Kong),
4. Indian School of Business (India),
5. Woxsen University (India),
6. S. P. Jain School of Global Management (Singapore, Australia),
7. T. A. Pai Management Institute, TAPMI (India),
8. MBA Center of Shanghai University (China).

Canada

Five business schools are represented in the list:

1. Ivey Business School (Western University),
2. John Molson School of Business, JMSB (Concordia University),
3. Smith School of Business (Queen's University),
4. Desautels Faculty of Management (McGill University),
5. HEC Montréal, the graduate school of business studies in Montreal (University of Montreal).

Main places of employment for graduates

MBA graduates continue to be oriented toward entrepreneurship, and the share of those who start their own business is growing. The top attractive industries are:

1. Consulting,
2. Finance,
3. Technology,
4. Healthcare and medicine,
5. Manufacturing,
6. Consumer sector,
7. Energy,
8. Real estate,
9. Retail,
10. Media and entertainment,
11. Transportation and logistics,
12. Non-profit organizations,
13. Public service.