About CBS

Accreditations and Rankings

Accreditations and rankings are important ways for us to benchmark our performance and ensure that we keep up high quality and stay focused on acquiring new goals

Accreditation

CBS participates in both international and national accreditations. The main purposes of the international accreditations are 1) International branding and 2) Learning international best practice on quality in education, research, and administration. The national accreditation was introduced by law in 2007.

Since 2000, CBS has been accredited by EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System) and since 2007 also by AMBA (Association of MBAs). In 2011 CBS received accreditation by AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as the first school in Scandinavia.

CBS has thus acquired the “Triple Crown” accreditation, an acknowledgement only shared by around 130 business schools worldwide. These schools are all top business schools and includes schools such as INSEAD, London Business School, IMD. and Rotterdam School of Management.

WHY FOUR ACCREDITATIONS?

The three international accreditations are all perceived essential due to their different recognition in different parts of the world, and because the – despite many similarities – focus on different elements.

EQUIS has strong focus on research, internationalisation, and partnership with the business community, while AACSB focusses strongly on governance, faculty qualifications, learning, and education. AMBA is concerned with MBA/MPA programmes only.

The Danish accreditation is compulsory by law and focus on CBS’ quality assurance system for programmes. It is handled by the Danish Accreditation Institution.

Rankings

CBS participates in a number of different rankings. Some focuses on programmes, others on research in general, and some on a specific subject area.

  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020    
Financial Times    
European Business Schools 34 35 51 33 27 30
CEMS Master in International Management 4 * 9 9 8 13
Master in General Management - World 32 36 38 38 45 50
Master in General Management - Europe   36 38 38 45 41
Executive MBA World 62 50 ** 57 50 54
Executive MBA Europe 31 27 ** 27 25 30
Full-time MBA World       100   98
Full-Time MBA Europe 37 34 36 31 35 36
Executive 'Custom courses' - Europe 40 40
Executive 'Open courses' - Europe 36 30
Bloomberg Businessweek    
Non-US schools, Full-time MBA 28 27 30 16 ****  
Europe, Full-time MBA         19  

QS - Business Masters Rankings

    
Masters in Management (Master's in International Management) - - 9 15 9 5
Masters in Finance (MSc in Advanced Economics and Finance)   - 13 17 16 14
by subject 'Business & Management Studies' 10 13 13 17 15  
by subject 'Accounting & Finance' 40 40 45 50 51-100  
by subject 'Social Science and Management' 38 43 41 49 63  
MBA (Europe = E, Global = G) 12 E 12 E 26 G /13 E 31 G / 14 E 26 G / 12 E 24 G
EMBA (Europe = E, Global = G)     ***12 E

28 G / 15 E

 25 G /12 E  
Corporate Knights    
Better World MBA 3 4 4 14 15  
Times Higher Education    
World Rankings 201-250 251-300 201-250 201-250 201-250  
By subject 'Business and Economics' - - 30 35 32 29
By subject 'Social Sciences' - - 88 94 97  
European Teaching         45  
The Economist    
Msc in Social Sciences - Organizational Innovation and Entrepreneurship (every second year) - 31 - 39    
Executive MBA 60     63    
Full-time MBA   95 88 89 No CBS participation 64

* CEMS decided not to submit data that year
** Programmes not included in the ranking list due to insufficient data
*** Inaugural ranking of EMBA programmes, only by region. In 2018 both global and regional
**** New methodology from 2019 only european list

The page was last edited by: Sekretariat for Ledelse og Kommunikation // 01/14/2025