Is There Really A Best University In The World?
What is the best university in the world? Every year the four major league tables crown a #1. This year, QS gives the title to MIT, Times Higher Education to Oxford for an eleventh year running, and both US News and ARWU (Shanghai) to Harvard. Perhaps the better question is not which university is the best, but which is the best for you?
Top 100 – BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings 2026/27
The BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings brings together the performance of universities across the four major global rankings published each year by Times Higher Education (THE), QS Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), US News and ARWU Shanghai. Each ranking uses a different methodology and measures different things. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average.
The Boardroom, The Bedroom And Jensen Huang’s $658BN Apology
Jensen Huang has sent the kind of memo no chief executive ever wants to write. The next morning Nvidia shares were down 4.4% in pre-market trading The past 18 months have produced a run of chief executives who discovered that the bedroom and the boardroom are less separate than they hoped. So where should boards draw the line, and what does the research say?
Entrepreneurship: Nature Or Nurture, And The Schools Teaching It Differently
Entrepreneurship as a post-study career path is on the rise, how can business schools best train students for the realities of start-up life, if indeed entrepreneurship can be taught at all?
The Influencers: Linas Beliunas on How to Make Sense of AI Beyond the Hype
Earlier this year, Linas Beliunas asked Claude to write the code for a complete digital bank. The result was ambitious. It also did not work. He shared the result anyway, with the humour intact and the lesson clear: a convincing AI demo is a long way from a working product. That habit of testing the claim, and saying plainly what he found, is what makes Beliunas worth following.
What these five Halloween fiends can teach you about the workplace
Monsters have traditionally been a way to represent common anxieties and open a conversation about how to resolve those worries. Here is a breakdown of how five fell fiends in particular can shine a light on what worries us at work and the strategies to cope with those concerns.
Mbappé, Mao And A Meme: What Brands Learn When Their Star Goes Off Script
Kylian Mbappé has had quite a week. Real Madrid beat Barcelona in El Clásico, and on Monday night he finished runner-up to Harry Kane at the Ballon d'Or. By Tuesday morning, three Chinese companies had ended their partnerships with him. Do celebrity ambassadors pay off for brands, and how can they prepare for an ambassador crisis?
Executive Education Is Changing. Business Schools Need To Change With It
Executive Education is no longer a “nice to have” aspect of professional life. Increasingly, professionals are finding that standard business qualifications such as the MBA, no matter their robustness, need to be topped up with additional and lifelong learning.
Tech & Innovation ›
Bird’s Eye: Is It The End Of Maths, Brexit, And Disinformation?
Our columnist Jamie Hose explores the dark side of increasingly clever AI, the vulnerabilities of data centres and shifting political perspectives, with the help of some expert voices.
Will Tesla’s Flying Car Stunt Sell Cars, Win Engineers And Bring On A SpaceX Merger?
Tesla's new Roadster flipped over a lorry at a SpaceX test site and lit up social media. What do three seconds in the air buy a carmaker with flat sales and a CEO who may want to fold it into his rocket company?
Is AI Making You A Better Procrastinator?
Procrastinators are rarely idle, according to Stanford philosopher, John Perry. They're often extremely busy, doing almost anything other than the one thing they should be doing. Now you can hand a half-formed thought to an AI agent and tell it to get going. It obliges instantly. It feels as though a great deal of work is getting done. But the thinking still has to happen.
BlueSky Bookshelf meets Hamilton Mann: Trias Algorithmica
Hamilton Mann's new book, Trias Algorithmica: What Code Rules, moves from the integrity of AI systems to the legitimacy of algorithmic power. We spoke to Mann about why a lawful system can still be illegitimate, what independent approval for AI would look like before it reaches the public, and the one question that reveals whether a company's AI governance is real: who can stop whom?
StartUp Culture ›
Joe Rogan Doesn’t Need An MBA But His Media Business Might
Forbes' 2026 ranking of the world's highest-paid podcasters puts the combined earnings of the top 20 at $638 million. Joe Rogan leads with $82 million. A 2023 Morning Consult survey found that 57% of Gen Z would like to become influencers. If the next generation of media companies is being built by individuals with microphones and cameras, who is teaching the business of it?
Harvard Can Count Its Unicorn Founders, But Can It Prove It Made Them?
For years, business schools have been good at counting the unicorns among their alumni. The next challenge is demonstrating the role they played in creating them. Maybe what matters is the ability to connect: management with engineering, ideas with capital, researchers with operators, people who want to start something with people who already have.
INSEAD And Harvard Have Solved Sharing With Strangers. But Can MBAs Solve Sharing With Neighbours?
Private vehicles sit unused for 95% of their lifetime. The average power drill is used for between 12 and 15 minutes across its entire ownership. Most households own things they use so rarely that the per-use cost, if you added it up, would be absurd. The sharing economy exists to solve exactly this, and MBA students have used business school to pursue their ideas.
5 Reasons Why OpenAI Could Be Tomorrow’s Forgotten Pioneer
In 1995, Netscape staged one of the most electrifying IPOs in Wall Street history. Within four years, it was absorbed by AOL for a fraction of its peak valuation. Now OpenAI is valued at somewhere north of $300 billion. The consensus, once again, is that we are in the presence of an inevitable winner. History suggests a little more scepticism is warranted.
Better Business ›
The Influencers: Linas Beliunas on How to Make Sense of AI Beyond the Hype
Earlier this year, Linas Beliunas asked Claude to write the code for a complete digital bank. The result was ambitious. It also did not work. He shared the result anyway, with the humour intact and the lesson clear: a convincing AI demo is a long way from a working product. That habit of testing the claim, and saying plainly what he found, is what makes Beliunas worth following.
Mbappé, Mao And A Meme: What Brands Learn When Their Star Goes Off Script
Kylian Mbappé has had quite a week. Real Madrid beat Barcelona in El Clásico, and on Monday night he finished runner-up to Harry Kane at the Ballon d'Or. By Tuesday morning, three Chinese companies had ended their partnerships with him. Do celebrity ambassadors pay off for brands, and how can they prepare for an ambassador crisis?
Executive Education Is Changing. Business Schools Need To Change With It
Executive Education is no longer a “nice to have” aspect of professional life. Increasingly, professionals are finding that standard business qualifications such as the MBA, no matter their robustness, need to be topped up with additional and lifelong learning.
BlueSky BookShelf Meets… Bart Jansen
Tech giants are setting the rule book on digital life and our access to it whilst asset managers are wielding powers once left to governments. Is it time we readdressed the ethics of it all? Bart Jansen explains in his latest book.
World View ›
Mbappé, Mao And A Meme: What Brands Learn When Their Star Goes Off Script
Kylian Mbappé has had quite a week. Real Madrid beat Barcelona in El Clásico, and on Monday night he finished runner-up to Harry Kane at the Ballon d'Or. By Tuesday morning, three Chinese companies had ended their partnerships with him. Do celebrity ambassadors pay off for brands, and how can they prepare for an ambassador crisis?
Why Researchers May Need To Rethink Collectivism
For decades, the word “collectivism” has been used by academics to describe cultures that place greater emphasis on the group than the individual. But what if researchers have measured this idea insufficiently?
Bird’s Eye: Is It The End Of Maths, Brexit, And Disinformation?
Our columnist Jamie Hose explores the dark side of increasingly clever AI, the vulnerabilities of data centres and shifting political perspectives, with the help of some expert voices.
The $70,000 OPT Fee For International Students That Turns Tomorrow’s Business Leaders Away From the U.S.
Six of the tech leaders at last week's White House AI lunch came to America as international students. Under a new DHS proposal, the schools that trained them would now pay $70,000 each to let their successors stay and work. Washington wants to turn America's universities into a toll booth on the road from campus to career.
CSR & Sustainability ›
Are We Witnessing The Downfall Of Shein?
Fast fashion brands face criticism from Gen Z consumers over greenwashing claims and unsustainable practices.
The Benefits Hobbies Have For Your Career
Google Trends data showed searches for “analogue hobbies” rose by 160% over a 30-day period. But what benefits do these hobbies actually offer?
The World Is On Fire – How Much Will That Cost?
The Met Office released a plausible 2056 scenario in which temperatures in England could peak at 45°C. But how much will that cost?
Why Should You Study At A B Corp Certified Business School?
As students become ever more motivated by societal impact, schools which have achieved B Corp status are an increasingly appealing prospect.
Learning & Careers ›
Is There Really A Best University In The World?
What is the best university in the world? Every year the four major league tables crown a #1. This year, QS gives the title to MIT, Times Higher Education to Oxford for an eleventh year running, and both US News and ARWU (Shanghai) to Harvard. Perhaps the better question is not which university is the best, but which is the best for you?
Top 100 – BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings 2026/27
The BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings brings together the performance of universities across the four major global rankings published each year by Times Higher Education (THE), QS Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), US News and ARWU Shanghai. Each ranking uses a different methodology and measures different things. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average.
Entrepreneurship: Nature Or Nurture, And The Schools Teaching It Differently
Entrepreneurship as a post-study career path is on the rise, how can business schools best train students for the realities of start-up life, if indeed entrepreneurship can be taught at all?
What these five Halloween fiends can teach you about the workplace
Monsters have traditionally been a way to represent common anxieties and open a conversation about how to resolve those worries. Here is a breakdown of how five fell fiends in particular can shine a light on what worries us at work and the strategies to cope with those concerns.
Entrepreneurship: Nature Or Nurture, And The Schools Teaching It Differently
Entrepreneurship as a post-study career path is on the rise, how can business schools best train students for the realities of start-up life, if indeed entrepreneurship can be taught at all?
Is There Really A Best University In The World?
What is the best university in the world? Every year the four major league tables crown a #1. This year, QS gives the title to MIT, Times Higher Education to Oxford for an eleventh year running, and both US News and ARWU (Shanghai) to Harvard. Perhaps the better question is not which university is the best, but which is the best for you?
Entrepreneurial Hubris and Overconfidence: The Dark Side of Positive Emotions
Overindulging positive emotions, such as unwarranted optimism and hubris, can blind entrepreneurs to potential risks and challenges.
Jensen Huang, Jo Malone And The Childhood Roots Of Overwork
Jensen Huang was nine when his family sent him from Taiwan to the Oneida Baptist Institute in rural Kentucky. Huang was assigned to clean the bathrooms. The CEO of Nvidia describes it without a trace of grievance. "It never occurred to us that it was hard work.". New research from INSEAD suggests the same background can lead to something different.
Your Next Big Investment – Pokémon Cards
Forget gold or bitcoin - trading cards are becoming a major asset. Sometimes selling for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, collectable cards for franchises such as Pokémon have developed into a market where knowledgeable collectors deeply immersed in the brand history become the most successful investors.
Top 100 – BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings 2026/27
The BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings brings together the performance of universities across the four major global rankings published each year by Times Higher Education (THE), QS Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), US News and ARWU Shanghai. Each ranking uses a different methodology and measures different things. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average.
The Benefits Hobbies Have For Your Career
Google Trends data showed searches for “analogue hobbies” rose by 160% over a 30-day period. But what benefits do these hobbies actually offer?
Top 100 – BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings 2026/27
The BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings brings together the performance of universities across the four major global rankings published each year by Times Higher Education (THE), QS Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), US News and ARWU Shanghai. Each ranking uses a different methodology and measures different things. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average.
Top Professors To Follow If You’re Interested In HR
Whether you’re looking to study HR, considering a career change, an employer seeking to improve the inner workings of their organisation, or simply interested, these experts can help
How Can Brands Benefit From Leaning Into Noughties Nostalgia?
"Can't repeat the past? Why, of course you can!", says Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, but also (probably) companies in 2026 that are leaning into nostalgia to sell products.
Ten Strategies To Make The Most of Your MBA Or Masters
Ask an MBA alum for advice about making the m out of business school, the overwhelming response is 'prioritise." So many exciting possibilities, but only so much time in a day. BlueSky Thinking goes beyond the stellar advice turned to the insight and research of academics for ten specific suggestions to get the most from your MBA.
Bird’s Eye: Sport Mentors Men And Women Differently… Should Education Follow?
Is there any merit to adopting different gender-based approaches to mentoring young people? Our columnist Jamie Hose explores how to get the best out of learners.
The 15 Podcasts Every MBA Should Listen To
Podcasts are one of the best lessons for business students. The most interesting people in strategy, finance, marketing and entrepreneurship are all now talking into microphones, for free, at length, and often more candidly than they would in a lecture hall or an annual report. Here are the 15 podcasts BlueSky Thinking has chosen to enrich your business knowledge, with details of what each is good for, where to start, and episodes to start with.
Your Next Big Investment – Pokémon Cards
Forget gold or bitcoin - trading cards are becoming a major asset. Sometimes selling for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, collectable cards for franchises such as Pokémon have developed into a market where knowledgeable collectors deeply immersed in the brand history become the most successful investors.
Nova, Vlerick and Rabat Draw A New Map In The FT Masters in Management (MiM) Ranking 2026
The University of St Gallen has topped the FT Masters in Management ranking again. Pretty much everything else in the top 10 has changed, and Linkedin is going to be buzzing with the headlines. From Portugal, Belgium and Morocco to the US, China and UK, BlueSky Thinking examines how the global map of management studies has changed.