The Financial Times ranks Barcelona-based IESE and ESADE among the top 10 European business schools

Barcelona (ACN).- IESE and ESADE, based in Barcelona, are among the top 10 business schools in Europe in 2011 according to the Financial Times. The Catalan business schools are ranked fourth and seventh respectively in the FT classification. Both schools have improved since last year’s ranking: IESE jumped from ninth to fourth, while ESADE improved slightly from eighth to seventh. ESADE (part of the Ramon Llull University) is tied in seventh with the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University) and SDA Bocconi in Milan. In addition, Madrid-based IE Business School is sixth, dropping one position compared to last year. The list includes 75 education centres from 18 European countries.

France and the United Kingdom have the three best business schools, but Spain has three schools among the first eight in Europe. Two French centres lead the ranking: the HEC Paris and the Insead (in Fontainebleau). In third comes the London School of Economics (LSE), which topped the list last year. Then, in fourth comes the Catalan IESE, with its main campus in Barcelona, and two other in Madrid and New York City. In fifth is the Swiss IMD followed by Madrid-based IE Business School. There is a tie in seventh among three education centres including the Barcelona-based ESADE Business School.

Despite not making the top 10 best European business schools in Europe, EADA based in downtown Barcelona came a respectable 27^th in the FT ranking.

IESE and ESADE are always among the best centres worldwide

Other economic rankings have also put the Catalan business schools among the best not only in Europe, but also among the best education centres in the world. In 2010, The Economist ranked IESE's MBA programme as the best two-year MBA programme in Europe and fifth in the world. At the same time, the UK economic magazine ranked the MBA at ESADE as the seventh best in Europe.  Furthermore, in 2009, The Economist found that the two-year MBA programme at IESE was the best in the world.