ESCP placed second for the past four years behind HEC Paris, which has secured the top spot nine times since the ranking started in 2011, but this year is recognized as having the world’s best Master in Finance program.
The win comes after ESCP has appointed a new dean, Leon Laulusa, and also reported a doubling of Master in Finance applications this year, according to the FT.
This year’s ranking brings other surprises too: while French business schools retain their dominance, they no longer hold all five top spots—as they have in the previous four years.
Financial Times Master In Finance Ranking: the top five explained
The Financial Times Master in Finance Ranking 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 $175,203 and salary increase of 120%.
However, ESCP performed particularly well by ranking first for its career services and alumni network. Furthermore, 96% of graduate respondents reported achieving their aims since graduating just three years ago.
This strong performance across multiple categories pushed ESCP to first position this year.
Following ESCP and HEC Paris are other French business schools, ESSEC Business School and Skema Business School, both of which consistently perform well across the FT ranking.
However, while EDHEC Business School was part of the French cohort with the top five Master in Finance programs in the previous four years, this year it has fallen to ninth place.
Whereas in 2022, EDHEC ranked third for career progress, it now places sixth. It also previously ranked seventh for career services but has fallen to 11th.
While EDHEC has fallen from the top five spots in the ranking, China’s Tsinghua School of Management and Economics has risen to take the fifth spot. Tsinghua has been climbing the ranking in recent years, placing seventh in 2022 and 12th in 2021.
Tsinghua’s strong performance is largely due to it ranking 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 $205,387 and see a 95% 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 London Business School in sixth, Spain’s IE Business School in seventh, the University of St Gallen in eighth—rising six places since 2022—and the University of Oxford: Said Business School in 10th.
Among the top 20 Master in Finance programs, 17 are European with the remaining spots held by three Chinese schools. Along Tsinghua are Peking University Guanghua in 12th place and Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance at SJTU closely following in 13th position.
The only other business schools in Asia to make the ranking are Hong Kong’s CUHK Business School and Singapore Management University: Lee Kong Chan.
New inclusions in the ranking in 2023 include Germany’s EBS Business School—joining in 25th place—and the University of Southern California: Marshall which is ranked 31st and is also the top school in the US.
Other US top business schools to study a Masters in Finance which are included in this year’s ranking include the University of Rochester: Simon Business School, Bentley University, and the University of Maryland: Smith.
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