Rhea Sakr didn’t want to choose between her career and her family. A 31-year-old French-Lebanese working mother of two, she’d been considering an MBA for a while but kept running into the same problem: most programmes required full-time study for a year. “As a working mother of two, I wanted to pursue an MBA that would challenge me professionally without asking me to put my personal life on hold,” she says.
She found what she was looking for in ESCP Business School‘s hybrid MBA. Rather than forcing her to put her life on hold, the programme gave her the flexibility to study from Paris via online classes and spend two weeks at the Madrid campus.”The two weeks in Madrid were a perfect balance: enough time to immerse myself in a new campus, connect with my cohort, and live the international experience, while still respecting the rhythm of my family life,” she says.
What made that balance possible is ESCP itself. Founded in 1819, it may be Europe’s oldest business school. But it has now grown into six campuses with programmes that are designed to move with your career rather than pull you away.
And don’t mistake its flexibility to be its only top feature. In the Financial Times 2026 rankings, ESCP’s MBA is ranked 8th in Europe and 22nd worldwide. QS Business Master’s Rankings 2026, meanwhile, places it 12th in Europe and 26th globally. If you’re weighing a European MBA against options elsewhere, know that a school that consistently ranks among the best year after year is doing more than protecting its reputation. It’s proof that the ESCP model works.
Experience three campuses
If you want to, you can choose to study in as many as three of ESCP’s campuses during the programme. Core modules run in Paris and a second city of your choosing — Berlin, London, or online — before a specialisation takes you to Madrid or Turin. Each move puts you in front of a different regulatory environment and a different business culture.
The cohort itself does a lot of that work too: there are over 22 nationalities, with an average age of 30 years old, and each student brings an average 6 years of professional experience.
After more than a decade in the aerospace industry, Jacques Maboundou, 30, sought an MBA that would widen his perspectives while working.
“I wanted an MBA that would broaden my perspective without putting my career on hold,” says Maboundou. “The ESCP MBA has given me the opportunity to do both. The hybrid format enabled me to balance a full-time job with regular travel from Toulouse to Paris for classes, requiring discipline and organisation.”
The ESCP MBA is designed for mid-level professionals with around three years of work experience, helping them develop leadership skills for career advancement. Source: ESCP Business School
An MBA built around your career
As someone from Congo, Maboundou valued the diversity of perspectives in the classroom. Every discussion broadened his mind. Every chat strengthened his ability to lead across cultures. “The MBA has given me the confidence to bridge engineering, strategy and leadership as I prepare for the next stage of my international career,” he says.
That confidence becomes even more tangible once the specialisation phase starts. Students pick one of four specialisations for the final stretch of the programme: Consulting or Entrepreneurship in Madrid, or Luxury or Fintech & Innovation in Turin. From there, they complete two Company Consultancy Projects.
One of Sakr’s projects focused on automotive financing. “It has been a pleasure contributing to this study as part of the ESCP MBA Company Consultancy Project,” she says. “Over three months of research, interviews, and learning, we explored the impact of AI on automotive financing. The study highlights how AI can enhance customer experience and operational efficiency, particularly by improving accuracy while also showing that the field is still at an early stage.”
International Leadership Advancement Programme (I-LEAP) is another successful ESCP initiative that pairs every student with certified coaches and alumni mentors.
According to ESCP’s 2026 Financial Times career statistics, 100% of graduates landed a job within three months of finishing, while 84% of graduates achieved their career goals. Graduates also reported a 107% increase in salary.
“This programme gave me the confidence and momentum I needed to take the next step in my career,” Sakr says.
Learn more about ESCP Business School’s MBA.
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