The subject ranking for business includes 909 universities in 62 countries.
The majority of the top 20 universities in the business ranking are US colleges, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University at the top.
Although the US dominates the ranking, universities in the UK and across Asia do particularly well.
The UK has three universities among the top 20, which also features two institutions from two Asian territories and one from Switzerland.
Canadian, Dutch and Australian schools also perform well for business and economics degrees.
The ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with slightly more weight given to teaching and research metrics and slightly less to citations. The complete methodology can be found.
Scroll down for a full list of degrees covered by the ranking and the career paths that they open up.
Top 6 universities for business and economics degrees
6. University of Oxford
Undergraduate business students at the University of Oxford study economics and management within the traditional degree framework, and they are taught primarily in small group tutorials.
Oxford’s academic department for business is the Saïd Business School, which teaches business, management and finance.
Postgraduate programmes on offer include the popular MBA programme, an executive MBA programme, a PhD in management studies and master’s degrees in financial economics, law and finance, and strategic management.
MBA students can also extend their one-year degree to combine the course with one of the specialised master’s programmes.
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All business students are members of an Oxford college and participate in university life outside the business school. Although not all colleges accept business students, the majority do.
5. University of Cambridge
Business and economics degrees are generally taught at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Courses include the MBA, Master of Finance, Master of Accounting and a number of MPhil programmes.
The business school has developed partnerships with companies in the private sector to facilitate collaborations. Business students are given the opportunity to work with the university’s partners on business and research projects. Students can also make the most of the nearby incubators, science parks and innovation centres.
The business school is home to the Entrepreneurship Centre, the Centre for Business Research and the Psychometrics Centre.
4. University of California, Berkeley
The Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmers in business. It is the second-oldest business school in the US.
While studying business at the university, students can use the career management group advisers to create personalised career plans and connect with businesses at which they might be interested in working.
Faculty in the business school have won two Nobel prizes.
3. Harvard University
Harvard University’s Business School is one of the most prestigious postgraduate business schools in the world.
The school offers a two-year MBA with a focus on real-world practice. There are also eight doctoral programmes leading to PhDs or DBAs.
At the moment, Harvard does not offer an undergraduate business programme, but students are able to study economics at undergraduate level. There are also summer programmes for undergraduates. These range from a one-day taster of the MBA programme to a 10-week course on research into markets and organisations.
2. Stanford University
Stanford’s graduate business school admits students for MBA, PhD, master’s and executive degrees.
The business school at Stanford is known to be the most selective in the US, based on the competition for acceptance on a course. Typically, less than 7 per cent of applicants secure a place.
Postgraduate students can take joint degrees with other schools, combining business with subjects such as earth sciences, education and law.
Although there is no specific business and management programmer for undergraduates, students can choose to major in economics, international relations or management science and engineering.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Sloan School of Management, also known as MIT Sloan, offers business programmes at the university.
In addition to MBA courses, executive training programmes and other postgraduate degrees, the school also teaches undergraduates through “Course 15”, which provides business skills to students with a technical and quantitative background.
The classes feature problem sets that make use of real-world business cases, tackling them with scientific approaches. The course also provides opportunities to conduct research and take part in entrepreneurship competitions.
Business courses at MIT cover a variety of topics, including operations research, consulting, entrepreneurship, finance, information technology, product development and marketing.
There is an emphasis on innovation across all these topics. Many influential new ideas in business, including the field of system dynamics, were born out of work at the Sloan School.