The mission of TheBestSchools.org is, as the name implies, find the best school for a particular student. When it came to recently determining the best schools in the world for international trade education, the website followed the now-beaten path of looking at what the competition has done along the same lines and crunching all the data collected to arrive at conclusions.
Specifically, TheBestSchools.org used the lauded QS rankings “as our point of departure,” setting those findings against the conclusions of AcademicInfluence.com, which relies on machine learning and search algorithms to characterize academic influence on the web (and thus avoiding the human bias that infects most academic rankings).
“By weighing both the QS Programmatic World Rankings and Academic Influence’s rankings, we not only created a unique ranking of the top 50 business and economics programs, but we reveal why each university business and economics program appears where it does,” states TheBestSchools.org’s introduction to “The 50 Best Business and Economics Programs in the World Today.”
Global Trade has taken a deeper dive, winnowing from “The 50 Best Business and Economics Programs in the World Today” those institutions that specifically focus on international trade.
1. Stanford University
Palo Alto, California
Opened in 1891 and located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford serves 7,000 undergraduate students and 9,000 graduate students. Founded in 1925, the Stanford Graduate School of Business offers an MBA, an accelerated master of science in management, and a Ph.D. Students can also choose to participate in Executive Education programs or two global certificate programs. And Stanford’s extensive alumni network includes former students from more than 50 countries.
2. University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
Established in the twelfth century before the Magna Carta and the Aztec Empire, Oxford has had an unquestionable global and historical impact. Innumerable world leaders, brilliant thinkers and reformers have attended Oxford, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, G.H. Hardy and Stephen Hawking. A modern program set within the 800-year-old university, the Saïd Business School offers many challenging degree tracks, including MBA and Executive MBA programs, and you can also get a Global Business degree from Oxford.
3. Bocconi University
Milan, Italy
Established in 1902, this was the first college in Italy to grant an economics degree and to focus its teaching and research on economics, business and law. Bocconi University offers students an elite education and access to major companies and international agencies. The four-year world bachelor in business offers a unique curriculum divided into study both at Bocconi and at two partnering schools: the University of Southern California and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Bocconi’s comprehensive suite of two-year MS degrees are mostly taught in English. They include majors in management, economics and social sciences, and economics and management of innovation and technology. The school also offers one-year specialized master’s programs in quantitative finance and risk management, and green management, energy, and corporate social responsibility. All are taught in English.
4. Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Yale, one of the premier Ivy League institutions, boasts a history that dates to the 1640s and it has made a significant historical and global impact in the academic world. The global influences of Yale’s students and faculty can be seen in Africa, eastern Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. The majority of international study and networking is organized through the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. The Yale School of Management offers a Global Pre-MBA Leadership Program.
5. University of California-Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
UCLA’s Anderson School of Management prides itself on collaborative interdisciplinary research and includes a Global Executive MBA program. Among the academic areas of research is Global Economics and Management.
6. New York University
New York, New York
Founded in 1831, NYU has always been globally minded, and since it first opened the school has expanded into Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, with 11 global academic centers and research programs in more than 25 countries. However, its base remains Wall Street, and among the NYU Stern School of Business, programs are an MS in Global Finance, the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, and the Langone Part-time MBA for Working Professionals.
7. University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
As one of the first public universities in the nation, the University of Michigan has an academic outreach that includes 17 centers and programs with global themes that cover more than 65 languages. The Institute of International Education ranked UM sixth in the nation for international studies. Michigan’s Ross School of Business, which was established in 1924, currently offers a Supply Chain Management degree program.
8. Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
With its small 8-1 student-teacher ratio, the academic environment at Duke University is relaxed and encouraging. However, this does not detract from the global outreach and cutting-edge research done by Duke. The university invests $992.8 million in research annually, and its network of more than 157,000 active alumni worldwide further contributes to the school’s high-quality reputation as one of the best business schools.
Established in 1969, the Fuqua School of Business allows students to pursue an MBA through daytime courses, a cross-continent program, a global executive track and weekend executive courses.
9. University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Networking opportunities abound at the University of Toronto, which has had one of the strongest research and academic faculties in Canada since its establishment in 1827. The alumni network includes 537,000 students worldwide. Located in Canada’s commercial capital, the university’s Rotman School of Management is the largest and most influential business school in the nation. The MBA programs offered are flexible, and among the variety of options is the Omnium Global Executive Program.
10. INSEAD
Fontainebleau, France
Formally known as the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires, INSEAD was founded in 1957 as a graduate-level business school. Available degree programs include an MBA, an executive MBA, an executive master of coaching and consulting for change, a master’s in finance, and a Ph.D. INSEAD has established campuses in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and student exchange programs exist in partnership with Penn’s Wharton School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Tsinghua University in China. INSEAD’s 15 affiliated research centers include The Africa Initiative and The Global Leadership Centre.