INSEAD ( ; French: Institut européen d'administration des affaires) is a non-profit business school with locations in France (Fontainebleau), Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) and the United States (San Francisco).
As a graduate-onlyâ¯business school, INSEAD offers a full-time Master of Business Administration, an Executive MBA (EMBA), an Executive Master in Finance, a Master in Management, an Executive Master in Change, a PhD in management, a Business Foundations post-graduate certificate and a variety of Executive education programmes delivered at campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
INSEAD was founded in 1957 by venture capitalistâ¯Georges Doriot, and his former studentsâ¯Claude Janssen, andâ¯Olivier Giscard d'Estaing. Original seed money was provided by theâ¯Paris Chamber of Commerce.
INSEAD's founding campus (the Europe Campus) is located inâ¯Fontainebleau, nearâ¯Paris,â¯France. The second campus (the Asia Campus) is in theâ¯one-northâ¯district of Singaporeâ¯next toâ¯one-north MRT station and the third campus (the Middle East Campus) is located inâ¯Abu Dhabi. INSEAD expanded its presence to North America in 2020 with the opening of the INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation.
INSEAD is a grande école, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to most universities in the world, grandes écoles are academic institutions that admit students through a competitive process.
Launched in May 2019, the INSEAD Master in Management (MIM) is a 14- to 16-month full-time programme for young graduates starting their careers in management. The average age of students on the INSEAD MIM is 23.
The programme is delivered across INSEADôs campuses in Europe and Asia. It lasts 10 months, with two cohorts joining per year, in September and January.
The institution runs a modular Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) programme across its Asia, Europe and Middle East campuses. It also offers the Tsinghua-INSEAD EMBA (TIEMBA) programme. Since 2024 it has offered the GEMBA Flex programme, a master's programme for executives.
QS World Universities Rankings has been ranking INSEAD #2 globally in the Subject Ranking for Business and Management since 2018, behind Harvard University.
The INSEAD MBA programme was ranked first globally by the Financial Times in 2016, 2017, and 2021, and has ranked among the top five in subsequent years, including #2 in 2026. INSEAD's MBA program was ranked third globally by Linkedin in 2025.
The INSEAD alumni community consists of 68,861 individuals across 179 countries with 171 nationalities.
The MBA programme has produced the second-highest number of Financial Times Global 500 CEOs, behind Harvard Business School. It is amongst the largest 20 producers of ultra high-net-worth individuals across all educational institutions, and is also amongst the top 10 producers of billionaire alumni amongst global MBA programs. INSEAD's MBA alumni are fourth worldwide in terms of capital raised, founder count, and company count (only behind Harvard's, Stanford's, and Wharton's).
INSEADâÂÂs faculty comprises about 170 permanent members from over 40 nationalities, spanning fields such as strategy, organisational behaviour, marketing, finance, and economics. INSEAD ranked ninth in the University of Texas at Dallas's Top 100 Business School Research Rankings (2020âÂÂ2024) and tenth in the Financial Times global business-school research ranking (2024). Faculty output includes journal articles, books, and teaching cases published through institutions such as The Case Centre.