Iscte Executive Education achieves its best ever result in the Financial Times Executive Education Ranking 2026

In 2026, Iscte Executive Education achieved its best result ever in the prestigious Financial Times Executive Education Ranking, reinforcing its international position among the leading Executive Education schools in the world and establishing itself as one of the institutions with the most dynamic international growth in this ranking.

In the category of customised programmes for companies (Custom Executive Education), Iscte Executive Education rises to 31st place worldwide, improving 13 places compared to the previous year and registering one of the biggest rises in the world ranking. Occupying No. 2 in Portugal.

In the category of open-enrollment programmes (Open-enrollment Executive Education), the school reaches 51st place worldwide, rising 16 positions compared to 2025 — the biggest rise recorded worldwide in this dimension of the ranking.

With this performance, Iscte Executive Education consolidates its position as the second-best Portuguese school in the average of the two dimensions evaluated by the Financial Times ranking, simultaneously standing out for its consistent growth in corporate programs and open programmes.

The results reflect a sustained trajectory of growth, innovation, and internationalization, as well as recognition of the quality of Iscte Executive Education’s training offer among companies and participants from different geographies.

Custom Executive Education

In customised corporate programs, Iscte Executive Education particularly stood out in indicators related to impact, retention, and international dimension:

Top 20 worldwide in the indicators “Follow-up” (19th position), “Future Use (19th position),” and “Overseas Programmes (18th position)”;

Top 25 worldwide in “Value for Money (23rd position).”

Open-enrollment Executive Education

In the open-enrollment category, the main highlight is the school’s strong international dimension:
Top 15 worldwide in the indicators “International Participants (13th position)” and “International Location (11th position)”.

Among the Portuguese schools present in the ranking, Iscte Executive Education also stood out as one of the institutions with the greatest international growth in 2026, achieving the highest global increase in the open-enrollment category and the greatest Portuguese progression in customised programmes.

For José Crespo de Carvalho, “these results confirm the international recognition of the work developed by Iscte Executive Education and reflect a consistent strategy of proximity to companies, innovation in the training offer and strengthening of the international presence. All this is the result of a lot of work and consistency, consistency, consistency, as well as the involvement of a large team of staff, coordinators, teachers and, above all, participants and companies”.

The Financial Times Executive Education rankings are considered one of the most relevant international benchmarks in the evaluation of executive education, analysing criteria such as the quality of the training experience, organisational impact, internationalisation, and the satisfaction of participants and companies.

Source and credits: ISCTE