HEC Paris leapfrogged the University of St Gallen to secure top spot in the 2023 Financial Times MiM Ranking after 12 years of the Swiss school dominating the list.
While a mainstay around the top of most FT rankings, HEC Paris has trailed behind St Gallen for over a decade of MiM rankings. A strong showing in key employment and salary criteria helped the prestigious French school take the number one spot this year.
The school—one of 21 French institutions among the 100-strong list—outperformed St Gallen in the salary increase category, recording a 76% increase between pre and post-MiM salaries while St Gallen trailed with a 56% increase.
HEC also narrowly beat St Gallen in two other key metrics: employment three months after graduation, with HEC reporting 100% success and St Gallen 98%, and average graduate salaries after three months, which sat at $129,806 for HEC and $129,264 for St Gallen.
As in previous years, European business schools dominated the ranking, taking 18 of the top 20 spots.
London Business School led a contingent of 10 UK-based business schools including the likes of Durham University Business School and Warwick Business School. Imperial College Business School, which ranked 23rd in 2022, was absent from this year’s list with reports suggesting this was due to a failure to secure enough alumni responses.
LBS took third place in the 2023 ranking after placing seventh in 2022. ESCP Business School—which has a campus in France as well as five other European locations—and Paris-based ESSEC Business school rounded out the top five.
There was a strong showing for business schools based in Asia. China’s Tsinghua School of Economics and Management led a group of 18 schools, 11 of which were based in India.
Indian business schools typically dominate the salary outcome category. In 2023, the top four positions were all taken by Indian institutions including Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. Each of the four Indian schools posted average graduate salaries after three years that amounted to more than $130,000 per year. HEC Paris ranked fifth in this category, with average salaries above $129,000.
Three mainland Chinese schools and a further two based in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan also featured among the list. Singapore Management University was the sole representative from Singapore.
The USA, where business schools have historically focused on the MBA over the MiM, featured just two schools within the ranking. That’s despite a growing number of US schools launching MiM degrees, including Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and the highly prestigious Chicago Booth School of Business.
The two US representatives in the 2023 ranking were: Hult International Business School, ranked 39th overall, and University of South Carolina Moore School of Business in 62nd.
News of HEC’s ascent to the top of the ranking follows a recent decision at the school to revamp the MiM curriculum, focusing on ecological transition and key social challenges.
In a recent interview with BusinessBecause marking the launch of a new double degree with Columbia University, François Collin, chief sustainability officer at HEC Paris, said: “Private and public organizations need well trained talents to lead sustainable change, while the young generation is prioritizing purposeful jobs building solutions to the climate and environmental crisis.”
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