Stanford University has topped the Financial Times’ Global MBA ranking for the first time in 13 years, having consistently ranked within the top 10.

In recent years, the university has improved its campus facilities, research centres and boosted its curriculum in order to enhance its MBA programme. Students are also attracted to a weighted salary of $192,179 (£122,360) upon graduation – the highest in the industry.

Stanford is closely followed by former champions Harvard Business School and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Overall, US schools, which account for 53 out of the 100 listed, fared slightly better than their European counterparts.

The rankings showed that employment was on the rise, despite economic conditions, with 87 per cent of students obtaining a job just three months after graduating, an increase of 3.5 per cent on the previous year .

The top ten schools are:

1. Stanford University GSB
2. Harvard Business School
3. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
4. London Business School
5. Columbia Business School
6. Insead
7. MIT Sloan School of Management
8. IE Business School
9. lESE Business School
10. Hong Kong UST Business School

The FT’s Global MBAs magazine is available today in the Financial Times and also on the FT.com. http://www.ft.com/business-education/mba2012.