Business School: UK is the best place to study in Europe

UK business schools have trumped their European rivals, according to the Financial Times European Business School Ranking 2016, giving them strength after the tumult of Brexit.

London Business School topped the FT's table for the third year on the trot, although continental rivals are close behind, with HEC Paris and INSEAD of France in second and third place.

But the ranking placed the UK as the leading centre for business education in Europe, with 20 UK schools ranked which scored on average 104 points, including University of Oxford's Said Business School and Cambridge University's Judge Business School.

The FT European Business School Ranking 2016 measures the quality and breadth of schools’ postgraduate programmes. It is based on their performance in the five main rankings published by the Financial Times each year: MBA, Executive MBA (EMBA), Masters in Management (MiM) and the two rankings for executive education. Only schools that take part in all five are eligible for a full score. The European ranking is less prestigious than the MBA rankings, which are published by the FT, Bloomberg and The Economist among others and which are coveted by schools.

The FT took loads of data from business schools, including average salaries, the increase in salary its graduates see three years after finishing their degree, and the percentage of grads in work three months after finishing school.

Individually INSEAD is the best for full-time MBA and EMBA programs, while Switzerland's the University of St Gallen is top for the MiM. IESE of Spain and IMD, also Swiss, topped the executive education rankings.

LBS put in a strong performance in all five rankings this year, including the MBA category, where it placed no 3 above US rivals Wharton School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Elsewhere several French business schools gained ground in the FT's ranking. EDHEC Business School shot up 11 places to no 14, after falling eight spots last year due to a low response by alumni to the FT's survey. EMLYON Business School climbed nine places to no 20, after dropping 15 places the previous year.

IE Business School is top in Spain and no 4 overall. It beat its two close Barcelona rivals ESADE and IESE Business Schools, which are also in the top-10.