3 universities with business degrees that create a better world

Khan Academy, Beyond Meat, and thredUP – three companies benefiting from their founder’s entrepreneurship, three companies doing good in the world.

From offering online tools to help students and educators to producing vegan patties that have 10 times less greenhouse gas emissions and combating fast fashion by creating an online consignment and thrift store for people to buy and sell secondhand clothes, companies like these understand what it means to be socially responsible and purpose-led. 

Another thing that these companies have in common? Their founders are MBA holders. 

Online and offline, the Master of Business Administration programme is one of the most popular postgraduate programme in the world. Statistica reports that in the US alone, more than 200,000 business-related master’s degrees were earned in 2020/21.

But while not every postgraduate business degree holder joins the workforce to better the world, some universities and their programmes do their utmost best to shape the ones who do. 

emlyon business school

Since 1872, emlyon business school has stood out as one of the world’s best business and management schools. It is among the 1% of global business schools accredited by the three international accreditation systems: Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, EFMD Quality Improvement System and Association of MBAs.

Programmes here reflect this prestige. The school’s International MBA (IMBA), which can be completed full-time in 11 months option or part-time in 24 months, offers optional, two-week pre-programme courses – Level Up for business basics or French Language Accelerator for an introduction to French language and culture. Both are great ways to start the IMBA before fully reaping its benefits.

Emlyon’s distinctive academic signature defines the IMBA, moulding learning into a lifelong endeavour to impact the world. With carefully designed courses, in-depth specialisations, hands-on learning and a dedicated careers team, the programme hones your skills to be a leader in the field and beyond.

Another key reason for this success is due to its effective teaching. With only 40 students per class, a cohort with 17 nationalities, classes make the most of diverse connections and in-depth coaching from professors and experts. With 95% of graduates finding a job either before or up to three months after graduation, it’s easy to see how the programme ranks third amongst Global MBAs in France (The Economist) and Top 12 globally for international mobility (FT). What’s just as clear is that you can be assured that earning your IMBA here puts you ahead of the curve.

London School of Economics

LSE’s two-year Global Master’s in Management gives students the opportunity to gain an interdisciplinary education and real-world research skills in an international setting. Source: London School of Economics

Ranked first in the UK for research in business and management, the London School of Economics (LSE) Department of Management stands out from the typical business school by combining the historic LSE social science tradition of academic rigour with unique opportunities to network with some of the biggest companies in the world.

The Global Master’s in Management programme, in particular, prepares students for the dynamic world of business through a combination of intellectual rigour and practical experience in business operations. Core courses aside, students here can explore  economics, economic sociology and business psychology too. This unique approach to management follows LSE’s successful tradition of social science academic study, and with postgraduate business degrees rapidly becoming common currency in the job market, the differentiated approach of LSE helps graduates stand out to employers.

The GMiM starts with a first year spent understanding the real challenges facing managers and organisations operating in a global context. Students can then opt for a summer internship to explore career options, before choosing one out of three second-year pathways to specialise and ground what they have learnt. 

As LSE is the only UK university in the CEMS Alliance, a group of top business schools in 34 countries, you can choose to enrol in the CEMS Master’s in International Management (CEMS MIM) in your second year. During the CEMS year (year two of the LSE GMiM), you can take part in an international exchange term at a leading CEMS school, along with exclusive CEMS core courses in Global Management, skills seminars, block seminars, and an international internship

Alternatively, GMiM students can apply to spend a term abroad in their second year. There are 10 leading partner business schools in the US and Asia to choose from. During this MBA exchange term, you’ll join an MBA class at your chosen school, and take a choice of optional elective courses offered by the school.

Haas School of Business

Haas’s MBA programme is ranked #4 in the US and #7 globally by the Financial Times. Source: Haas School of Business.

The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley helps students build fluency in business fundamentals. The result? Graduates empowered and confident to step into their future, armed with knowledge and skills to create change. 

The school is host to more than 2,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students who come from all over the world to find success here. Programmes like the Full Time MBA, MBA for Executives, and Evening and Weekend MBA are designed to deep-dive into sectors like communication, innovation, global business and many more. You gain more knowledge as you learn collaboratively with top-notch peers.

“I feel like I have a skillset to go into any industry and approach different problems in a structured way; I’m learning how to look at markets, understand industry trends, and evaluate consumer or competitor behaviour,” says graduate Andy Kang, now a strategic planning manager at Nike. “Haas has given me different frameworks for problem solving.”

Clases are kept small to foster an intimacy that’s critical to personal development. Students and faculty share a common culture and leadership principle, which means support is always available. If you are a student who enjoys learning as you do, you won’t regret picking this school. It prominently features hands-on experiential learning, while customising your programme in an interdisciplinary environment. 

Ranked #7 in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2023, Haas is a place to be to put yourself out in the world and shake it up for the better. 

*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International