Not only is France home to La Défense, the largest purpose-built business district in Europe, but it also serves as a strategic hub, offering access to key European markets and industries across a variety of sectors.
The question is less why you should consider an MBA in France, and more which business school can help you best leverage the opportunities there.
To get you started, here’s our list of the six best business schools in France. All of these top MBA programs feature in the Financial Times and QS MBA rankings and are taught in English.
6. EMLyon Business School
Financial Times ranking: 57
QS Ranking: 51
MBA length: 11 or 24 months
Cost: €43,500 (US$45,630)
Lyon is France’s second-largest student city and third-largest city overall. It’s well known as an established business hub for the banking, chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries, as well as for its burgeoning video games development scene.
MBAs at EMLyon Business School tap into these varied career opportunities through the school’s rigorous careers program. One day of each academic week throughout the year is dedicated to career development through workshops and events with employers and alumni, career fairs, meetups, and discussion panels.
The International MBA program doesn’t just help students boost their careers locally. EMLyon MBAs also participate in global learning trips, with past destinations including Brussels, Milan, Helsinki, and Berlin.
The impact on MBA career outcomes is significant: 95% of the 2023 MBA class secured job offers within three months of graduation, and within three years, alumni achieve an average salary of $132,071.
5. EDHEC Business School
Financial Times ranking: =57
QS Ranking: 47
MBA length: 10 months
Cost: €52,500 (US$55,000)
While Nice is perhaps best known for its blue skies and beautiful landscapes that inspired Matisse and Chagall, the city is also a bustling business center.
The Côte d’Azur Economic Development Agency actively attracts investors and startups, while the French Tech Côte d’Azur movement promotes entrepreneurial growth in the region.
To capitalize on this entrepreneurial atmosphere, the MBA at Edhec Business School offers an Entrepreneurship specialization, as well as other study tracks including International Finance, Global Leadership, and Digital Innovation.
Whatever you choose for your specialism, EDHEC MBAs can expect to get hands-on experience through a two-month Tailored MBA project during their degree.
Students can choose between a Consulting Project, Internship or Job Report, Business Plan, Sustainability Project, International Academic Exchange, or a Research Project.
4. ESSEC Business School
Financial Times ranking: 54
QS Ranking: 28
MBA length: 12 months
Cost: €50,000 (approx. US$52,430)
ESSEC Business School operates across four campuses: in Cergy, a small commune in the north-western suburbs of Paris; in Paris La Défense; as well as in Rabat, Morocco, and Singapore.
ESSEC’s MBA program is the best in France when it comes to gender parity among students. According the 2024 Financial Times MBA rankings, it places 10th globally for female representation. In the class of 2024, women make up 55%.
The career prospects for MBA graduates from ESSEC are strong. By six months post-graduation, 91% of the 2024 class had received job offers from leading global companies such as Accenture, Amazon, KPMG, Schneider Electric, and Louis Vuitton.
The program is particularly good for career changers. 76% of students changed sector, 97% changed function, and 73% changed location after the ESSEC MBA. The average salary for an ESSEC MBA grad is around $115K according to the FT.
3. ESCP Business School
Financial Times ranking: 25
QS Ranking: 27
MBA length: 10 to 22 months
Cost: €57,900 (US$60,825)
For students hoping to take advantage of France’s connections to other countries during their MBA, ESCP Business School is a great choice. It boasts campuses in Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid, Turin, and Warsaw, and MBA students can study on any three of their choice during the program.
The Paris campus is situated on Avenue de la République, a short Métro ride from the Louvre and many of the attractions of central Paris. It’s also less than an hour from famed business district La Défense.
The curriculum on the ESCP MBA in International Management stresses the importance of experiential learning, with all students completing company consultancy projects with two different companies, in two different countries.
The result is that ESCP MBA grads have some of the strongest career outcomes of the business schools on this list. 99% were employed within three months of graduating, with 91% of grads securing roles in international environments.
Leading employers include Accenture, McKinsey, Estée Lauder, Google and the United Nations.
The average salary within three years is €143,907 according to the FT—that’s around US$151K.
2. HEC Paris
Financial Times ranking: 12
QS Ranking: 6
MBA length: 12 or 16 months
Cost: €78,000 (US$82,107)
Situated in Jouy-en-Josas in Paris’s southwestern suburbs, HEC Paris’s campus is only four kilometers from Versailles, the historic site of Louis XIV’s court. But it’s not just keen historians who should consider studying at this famous grande école.
Offering the flexibility of a 12-month accelerated MBA or a 16-month program, it straddles the border between the traditional two-year MBA favored by North American schools, and the accelerated one-year programs popular throughout Europe.
While consulting, tech, and finance are the most popular career choices for HEC MBA grads, the school supports entrepreneurial activity both through classroom teaching and extracurricular activities.
For instance, the HEC Incubator is located at Station F, the world’s biggest startup campus. To date, the incubator has helped raise over €1 billion for more than 1,000 startups.
Entrepreneurs and aspiring corporate leaders alike benefit from this fast-paced environment. 91% of MBAs accepted job offers within three months of graduating, with top recruiters including Amazon, Bain & Company, BCG, Deloitte, IBM, and Google.
Like many of the schools on this list, HEC is a safe bet for international students looking to move their careers abroad: 68% of grads found jobs outside of their home countries after the MBA, and the median salary was a whopping $123,911.
1. INSEAD
Financial Times ranking: 2
QS Ranking: =11
MBA length: 10 or 12 months
Cost: €107,600 for January 2026 intake (approx. US$113,270)
For MBAs looking to explore even further afield than Europe, INSEAD is another strong option. INSEAD, like ESCP, has campuses around the world, including in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, however its France campus is something special.
Situated in Fontainebleau, just southeast of Paris, the school sits on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau. As well as being a UNESCO Nature Reserve, the forest is a popular area for rock-climbers and is also only a short distance from the famous Fontainebleau Palace.
For those who choose to study their MBA on the Fontainebleau campus, they will join a class of 429 students with an average age of 29.
On the program, students can choose from a wide variety of electives, including on specialist topics such as decision sciences and entrepreneurship and family enterprise.
The MBA Capstone that is required on the INSEAD MBA sees students act as leaders to solve strategic challenges and present their solution to INSEAD alumni for feedback.
INSEAD was recently ranked the best business school in Europe by the Financial Times and offers access to over 260 on-campus recruiters, so it is no surprise that its grads go onto great success after the program.
84% of MBAs are employed within three months of graduation, with 67% succeeding in changing sector.
According to the Financial Times, the average salary for an INSEAD MBA graduate within three years of completing their studies is $198,904.
List ordered based on the Financial Times MBA Ranking 2024. Images sourced from business school Facebook pages and stats from school websites.
