Bloomberg Businessweek’s Best Business School Rankings 2025-26

Bloomberg Businessweek has released its comprehensive 2025-2026 Best Business School Rankings, evaluating Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs across the globe through its distinctive stakeholder-driven methodology. The rankings provide prospective students with crucial insights into program quality across four key regions: the United States, Canada, Europe and Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

What Are the Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools Rankings?

Bloomberg Businessweek’s Best B-Schools rankings represent one of the most comprehensive assessments of top MBA programs worldwide. It is unlike traditional rankings that rely primarily on institutional data. This methodology centers on the experiences and evaluations of key stakeholders: graduating students, recent alumni, and companies that recruit MBAs.

Methodology: Bloomberg’s MBA Ranking

Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking methodology centers on stakeholder-driven assessment, recognizing that graduating students, recent alumni, and recruiting companies have “differing and overlapping interests” in evaluating business school quality. The system uses a two-step process: generating weightings for each index based on stakeholder input, then determining school scores through comprehensive surveys.

The school’s ranking draws on five indexes: 

  • Compensation (salary data and job placement)
  • Learning (educational experience quality)
  • Networking (alumni connections and career support)
  • Entrepreneurship (innovation and business creation skills)
  • Inclusion (diversity and inclusive environments, US schools only). 

Each survey respondent group holds a different weight: alumni (40%), graduating students (25%), and recruiters (35%).

Bloomberg European and Middle Eastern Business Schools Ranking

In 2025, SDA Bocconi in Milan overtook IMD at #1. INSEAD ranks 5th again this year and IE enters the top 10. Finally, Mannheim and St.Gallen tied for 8th place in the newly formed Europe & Middle East ranking, highlighting the competitive landscape of European business education. 

The top 10 European and Middle Eastern business schools are:

1. SDA Bocconi (Italy)

2. IMD (Switzerland)

3. IESE Business School (Spain)

4. London Business School (United Kingdom)

5. INSEAD (France)

6. Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

7. IE Business School (Spain)

8. Mannheim (Germany)

8. University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

10. ESADE (Spain)

Bloomberg US Business Schools Ranking

Stanford retains the #1 spot for the seventh consecutive year, leading in the Networking and Entrepreneurship indexes. Followed by Wharton, UC Berkeley Haas, and Harvard, which are all rising stars in this year’s list. Columbia leaped up to 9th from 17th place last year, and Cornell’s Johnson School achieved a top 10 position in this year’s rankings. The top 10 US business schools are:

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business

2. The Wharton School – University of Pennsylvania

3. UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business

4. Harvard Business School

5. Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management

6. Dartmouth – Tuck School of Business 

7. University of Chicago Booth School of Business

8. Cornell University – SC Johnson Graduate School of Management

9. Columbia Business School

10. University of Virginia – Darden School of Business

Bloomberg Canadian Business Schools Ranking

Canada’s business schools continue to demonstrate strong performance in Bloomberg’s assessment, with programs recognized for their quality education and career outcomes. The top 5 Canadian business schools are:

1. Concordia University – John Molson School of Business 

2. Western University – Ivey Business School

3. Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University 

4. HEC Montréal

5. University of Alberta

Bloomberg Asia-Pacific Business Schools Ranking

The Asia-Pacific region showcases a diverse array of high-quality MBA programs, reflecting the region’s growing economic importance and educational excellence. The top 9 Asia-Pacific business schools are:

1. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE)

2. Hong Kong (HKUST) 

3. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB)

4. Indian School of Business (ISB)

5. Shanghai University MBA Center

6. Woxsen University

7. SP Jain School of Global Management

8. IMT Ghaziabad

9. TAP Management Institute (TAPMI) 

Schools By Region

Two new schools entered the ranking this year: TAP Management Institute from India, and Abu Dhabi University College of Business, founded over 20 years ago in the UAE. As a result, the Middle East is now part of the Europe section to account for the inclusion of the newcomer to the list.

US B-Schools Strong But Slowly Stepping Aside to Asia

The 2025-26 rankings reveal several important trends in business education. Stanford’s continued dominance at the top spot for seven consecutive years demonstrates sustained excellence across all evaluation criteria. The rise of programs like UC Berkeley Haas and Cornell Johnson in the top rankings suggests increased recognition of schools that excel in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Regional diversity remains strong, with schools across different geographic markets demonstrating unique strengths in their respective business environments. The methodology’s emphasis on stakeholder feedback continues to reward programs that deliver tangible career outcomes and maintain strong connections with both alumni and recruiting companies.

The inclusion of entrepreneurship as a dedicated ranking criterion reflects the evolving priorities of MBA students who increasingly value innovation and business creation skills alongside traditional career advancement opportunities.

What This Ranking Means for MBA Students

For prospective MBA students, the Bloomberg Best Business School Rankings 2025-26 offer several key insights. The substantial weight given to alumni and recruiter feedback (75% combined) suggests these rankings effectively capture how MBA programs perform in the job market and deliver long-term career value.

Prospecitve full-time MBA students can use this information to identify programs that not only provide excellent education but also maintain strong industry connections and placement records.

In addition, students should pay particular attention to how schools perform across criteria that align with their personal goals. Those prioritizing immediate financial returns should focus on compensation scores.  Alternatively, students interested in long-term career development might emphasize networking and learning outcomes.

The regional approach allows students to identify top programs within their preferred geographic markets. Nonetheless, they should recognize that the business education context can vary significantly across different economic and cultural environments.

Want to discover more of the latest MBA rankings? Take a look at the MBA Rankings page.