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The top 100 universities for careers in banking

Going to the right university is crucial to anyone aspiring to a career in banking. But all students (and probably no graduates) ask themselves the same question: which university really is the best for a career in the industry?

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Luckily, there is a ranking. Quacquarelli Symonds’ annual top universities guide, often called the QS World University Rankings, can be broken down by subject – which is exactly what we’ve done to find the top 100 universities for finance (and accounting).

The results mostly feature the usual suspects. American universities had the biggest presence on the list, providing 25 entries, including four of the top five and seven of the top ten. British universities came a strong second, with 15 universities (including the rest of the top ten). The third biggest contributor was Australia, which provided seven universities.

Like in previous years, Anglosphere countries had the strongest footprint and made up a slim majority (51%) of the total list. That’s not surprising, given that London and New York are still the axis on which world finance turns.

European countries were comparatively poorly represented. Just 21 universities on the list were in EU countries, with an additional three in Switzerland. France, which had 5 Grandes Écoles among the top 100, performed particularly well.

Some Asian countries also performed quite well. Although there were only 3 Japanese universities in the top ten, there were three Singaporean universities (the country’s Big Three), four Korean ones, and five Hong Konger ones. India, despite the strength of its Indian Institutes of Management in other rankings, did not have any universities on QIS’ list.

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AUTHORZeno Toulon Reporter
  • si
    sidthev
    20 February 2012

    Well, given the impressive number of frogs working in IB or trading around me, all educated in Grandes Ecoles, I wonder if I can take this ranking seriously!

  • Ki
    KillaMilla2
    18 February 2012

    yea and another comment....university of bristol is better ranked than Princeton....BOUUHHHHAHAHAHAHA

  • To
    TomCat12
    17 February 2012

    Interesting piece Sarah. One thing to add though, Bocconi is in there as #15 with the full name.

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