The best fashion schools in the world 2019

After a year-long hiatus, The Business of Fashion (BoF) has once again released its Global Fashion School Rankings, a rundown of the best fashion schools in the world. 

The top performing schools in the 2019 ranking include Parsons, School of Design (UK); Aalto University, and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Finland) and the National Institute of Design (India). 

A change in the methodology from the 2017 ranking means that fashion schools are now ranked across a total of 30 metrics including global influence, resources, teaching, and career progression and preparedness. A survey of 13,500 students and alumni across 66 institutions and 115 recruitment and industry professionals was also used to collect data for the final ranking. 

Previously BoF ranked schools numerically at undergraduate and graduate level. Now, instead, Badges of Excellence are awarded, which recognise a school’s strength in four key areas: best overall, best in global influence, best in learning experience and best in long-term value. The top-performing programmes in each discipline were awarded a Badge of Excellence for the category and shortlisted for inclusion in the list. 

The final report is now also further split into three key disciplines at both undergraduate and graduate levels: fashion design, fashion art direction and communications and fashion business and management.

Which subject should you study at university?

The aim of redesigning the ranking is to help students assess which programme will best prepare them for a career in fashion, based on a number of metrics and measures based on what students are looking for. 

Undergraduate schools that excelled across all three categories included Polimoda (Italy), the University of the Creative Arts (UK) and the London College of Fashion (UK). Graduate schools that performed particularly well include Institut Français de la Mode/Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (France), Istituto Marangoni International (Italy) and Central Saint Martins (UK). 

This year’s methodology was developed in consultation with The Business of Fashion Education Council, made up of 12 experts in the fashion industry and in fashion education including Jane Rapley, professor emerita at Central Saint Martins; Bandana Tewari, contributor and a Business of Fashion sustainability activist; Sara Sozzani Maino, deputy director of special projects and head of Vogue talents at Vogue Italia and Dr Christine Tsui, a fashion business consultant and columnist. 

The 2019 results feature 43 fashion schools across five continents and 16 countries. 

The full ranking can be found here.

Read more: The best fashion schools in the world 2017