When do you stop being a good or bad student? Perhaps never. Higher education institutions, the very ones that hand out grades to millions of students, also chase praise. However, in their case, the brownie points aren't awarded by professors, but by ranking organizations – usually the media.

Business schools, in particular, seem to be heavily influenced by this academic capitalism. In the days leading up to the publication of its ranking of the top business schools, the French education paper L'Etudiant turns into a complaints bureau. Unhappy with their results, obtained under embargo, several directors share their dismay: Some are on the verge of tears, others threaten to drop out of the ranking. "We're getting a lot of phone calls about this. Schools want to glean information. They don't like losing places, it makes waves," said Kira Mitrofanoff, head of rankings for Challenges business magazine.

Conversely, when the news is good, "business schools break out the champagne," said Leo Cremonezi, rankings editor for the Financial Times (FT), the most prescriptive and influential daily in this small ecosystem. "Rankings are free marketing, and the market is very competitive in France," said the statistician.

Every year, the British newspaper publishes its ranking of the world's best Masters in Management. In 2024, six French schools – HEC, INSEAD, EDHEC, ESCP, EM Lyon, ESSEC – featured in the top 10. Andrew Jack, education editor of the FT, said: "France, what a paradox! Here's a country with a leftist, anti-capitalist reputation, and yet it boasts some of the best business schools in the world." The latter returned the compliment. "The FT is to business schools what Shanghai is to universities: a world reference, and an exceptional showcase," said Léon Laulusa, director general of ESCP.

'Exceptional marketing tool'

At ESCP, three statisticians are in charge of collecting data and answering questions for the various rankings, said Laulusa: "Each school has a team dedicated to rankings." All the more so since the rankings, which emerged in the 1980s with a national approach, gained momentum with the Bologna process, which advocated for a harmonization of the various European higher education systems.

At the turn of the 2000s, Bernard Ramanantsoa, then director general of HEC, made several trips to London to convince the FT's former head of rankings to launch a Masters in Management (MiM) ranking. "At the time, the FT was only interested in MBAs, which were rare in French schools. We were frustrated not to have anything for our grandes écoles. The MiM ranking gave us international exposure. It's an exceptional marketing tool," said Ramanantsoa. Since then, the number of rankings has multiplied and become increasingly international.

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