Melbourne Business School has secured another ranking accolade, taking the top spot for Australian business schools in the latest QS Global MBA Rankings.
The Melbourne MBA, which ranked 30th globally, edged out the University of New South Wales (Australian Graduate School of Management) (31st globally) and the University of Sydney Business School (50th globally).
MBA programs were ranked based on the indicators of employability, entrepreneurship and alumni outcomes, return on investment, thought leadership, and diversity. The rankings assessed 318 programs across 48 countries.
The United States dominated the global rankings, with the top three schools all based in the US and half of the top 10. The other five schools are all either wholly or partly based in Europe, with INSEAD offering prospective students two possible campuses to choose from, one in Singapore and another in France.
| Australian Rank | University/Business School | 2025 Global Rank | 2024 Global Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne Business School | 32 | 30 |
| 2 | UNSW (AGSM) | 33 | 31 |
| 3 | University of Sydney Business School | 45 | 50 |
| 4 | UQ Business School | 81 | 75 |
| 5 | Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University | 101-110 | 101-110 |
| 6 | University of Western Australia | 121-130 | 131-140 |
| 7 | RMIT University School of Business and Law | 151-200 | 151-200 |
| 8 | UnisSA Business School | 151-200 | 151-200 |
| 9 | University of Technology Sydney Business School | 151-200 | 151-200 |
| 10 | Wollongong University (Sydney Business School) | 151-200 | 201-250 |
| 11 | Deakin Business School | 201-250 | 201-250 |
| 12 | La Trobe Business School | 201-250 | 201-250 |
| 13 | Curtin Business School | 251+ | 251+ |
| 14 | Victoria University | 251+ | 251+ |
Across the five ranking criteria, Melbourne scored exceptionally well on Thought Leadership (92.7), Return on Investment (79.6) and Employability (73.8).
Professor Tava Olsen, Deputy Dean, Academic at Melbourne Business School said the School’s Careers Office worked tirelessly to improve students’ placeability, so it was pleasing to see the high scores on Return on Investment and Employability.
“Our score on Thought Leadership places us 13th in the world, which is in line with the University of Melbourne’s recent QS World University 2024 ranking of 14th. It is rewarding to find ourselves ranked this highly because we pride ourselves on the quality of our faculty research,” Professor Olsen said.
“Indeed, over 20% of our professors were recently included in Stanford University’s Top 2% of Scientists in the World list in the Business and Management field.
“Of course, thought leadership also relies on translating research into practice, something that is frequently seen in our MBA classroom and suite of Executive Education short courses and custom programs.”
AGSM maintained its position in the rankings from last year, and improved by four places since the 2022 rankings, released two years ago.
“AGSM has once again ranked among the world’s best MBA programs,” said Professor Nick Wailes, Senior Deputy Dean and Director AGSM.
“Having the AGSM Full-time MBA again rank in the top 10% of the world’s best MBA programs is a reflection of the quality of program, the outstanding students it attracts, and the impact our global 100,000 alumni are making in business, government and the for-purpose sectors,” he said.
AGSM ranked above the global average across all indicators: Return on Investment (ROI), Alumni Outcomes, Diversity, Thought Leadership and Employability. The school performed extremely well in the areas of Thought Leadership (with a global indicator of 90.1 – 38.8 points ahead of the global average), and Diversity (with an indicator of 90.3 – 30.2 ahead of the global average).
“We continually evolve and refine our MBA programs, aligning them with the dynamic needs of the world. Our focus is on nurturing leaders who are passionate about making a positive impact, enabling them to address the evolving challenges and opportunities of our global society,” said Professor Wailes.
Thought Leadership was ranked against factors such as school’s research impact and academic reputation and is based on responses from over 200,000 academics in 60 countries around the world. Research Impact measures faculty productivity in specific academic fields. The diversity metric looks at the gender balance and international mix of students and faculty.
Return on Investment was also a key differentiator, with AGSM scoring 79.4 – 16.9 points ahead of the average.
