ESADE Business School

What Is ESADE Business School?

ESADE Business School is a private business school located in Barcelona, Spain. Founded in 1958, it offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. ESADE Business School is a member of the ESADE network, a global academic institution structured as a business school, a law school, and an executive education area. ESADE Business School actively partners with Ramon Llull University.

ESADE Business School is known for its diversity, international perspective, and its emphasis on essential “soft skills” such as critical thinking and the ability to work collaboratively with others. The school's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is commonly ranked among the 25 best programs in the world by leading publications such as Businessweek, U.S. News, and the Financial Times.

For 2019, the ESADE Business School’s full-time MBA program was rated as the 40th-best program globally by The Economist. It was also rated as the 9th-best MBA program in Europe.

Understanding ESADE Business School

The ESADE network was first conceived in the spring of 1954 by a group of Spanish professionals and entrepreneurs. ESADE Business School was founded later, in 1958, as a continuation of this project. Today, the school is known for its highly diverse study body, with over 95% of students hailing from countries outside of Spain.

The ESADE Business School’s MBA program is available in 12-month, 15-month, and 18-month configurations. The 12-month program offers courses from September to September, while the 15- and 18-month programs offer students the opportunity to pursue either summer internships, exchanges with other MBA programs worldwide, or a combination of the two.

One of the principal objectives of ESADE Business School is to cultivate both communication and teamwork competencies in their graduate students. To that end, the school’s MBA programs all begin with an intensive eight-month period of paired learning and instruction, in which students complete their studies in a team setting. This is complemented by a menu of 45 different international exchange partnerships, for students wishing to complete their studies outside of Barcelona.

Graduates of ESADE Business School

With an annual tuition of roughly 70,000€, graduates of ESADE Business School MBA saw an average starting salary of roughly $70,000 in 2019, rising to just under $150,000 within three years of graduation. Of these, over 90% of students had received their employment offers within three months of graduation.

In recent years, graduates of ESADE Business School have found employment principally in the technology and management consulting sectors, which collectively represented about one-half of the graduating class. Financial services proved the next most popular industry, with roughly 10% of the total.