Meanwhile, the 2024 ranking sees HEC Paris remain in second place despite having placed top on 11 occasions since the ranking began in 2011.
Masters degrees in Finance are the most desirable among all Masters degree types, according to the 2024 GMAC Prospective Students Survey. Only Full-time MBA programs are more popular among those considering applying to business school.
Other notable achievements in this year's Financial Times ranking include Nova School of Economics, which becomes the first Portuguese business school to make it into the top 10, securing the number seven position. It's also an impressive year for Chinese business schools, with Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance at SJTU making the top 10, alongside Tsinghua School of Economics and Management.
Financial Times Master In Finance Ranking: the top five explained
The Financial Times Master in Finance Ranking 2024 considers 18 categories, eight of which are based on alumni responses and 10 on school data.
HEC Paris continues to rank strongly for salaries—the category that holds the highest weighting—boasting an average graduate salary three years after graduation of $183,926 and an average salary increase—based on comparisons between salaries earned at program completion and three years after graduation—of 99%.
However, ESCP performs particularly well due to ranking first for its career services, career progress, and alumni network. Furthermore, 96% of ESCP's graduate respondents report achieving their aims since graduating just three years ago—the highest out of the 63 schools surveyed.
This strong performance across multiple categories ensures ESCP retains its top position this year.
Further down the list, following ESCP and HEC Paris are other French business schools, ESSEC Business School and Skema Business School, which retain their 2023 positions of third and fourth, respectively.
Skema ranks highly across metrics such as its international student percentage and overall student satisfaction rate. Meanwhile, ESSEC grads see a 95% average salary increase.
China’s Tsinghua School of Management and Economics remains in fifth position, after steadily climbing the ranking over previous years.
Tsinghua’s strong performance is largely due to placing first for average graduate salary after three years and third for salary percentage increase—categories that are worth 16% and 10% in weighting, respectively. Graduates from Tsinghua earn on average $198,874 and see a 105% salary increase.
FT Masters in Finance ranking: World’s Best Masters in Finance
Rounding out the top 10 programs in the FT Master in Finance ranking are EDHEC Business School in sixth, Nova School of Business and Economics in seventh, the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance in eighth—rising five places since 2023— and the University of Oxford: Said Business School in eighth.
London Business School falls from sixth position to 10th in 2024, meanwhile Switzerland’s University of St Gallen is also knocked out of the top 10 this year, falling to 11th place.
Among the top 20 Master in Finance programs, 17 are European with the remaining spots held by three Chinese schools. Along Tsinghua and the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance is Peking University Guanghua, which is ranked 13.
The only other business schools in Asia to make the ranking are based in Hong Kong: CUHK Business School and Hong Kong Baptist University School of Business.
New inclusions in the ranking in 2024 include the US’s Hult International Business School, which comes in 44th position. Other top US business schools to study a Master in Finance featuring in this year’s ranking include the University of University of Southern California: Marshall, University of Texas at Austin: McCombs, Bentley University, Fordham University: Gabelli, and the University of Rochester: Simon Business School.
