MBA History | Origins of the MBA Degree

Here is a timeline of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

Included in this history are the first business schools and the origins of graduate business programs.

Sources have been provided for some of the less well-known facts.

World’s First Business School Established

December 1, 1819

The world’s first business school was created in 1819 with the founding of The École spéciale de commerce et d’industrie in Paris, France. The Business School still exists and is now known as ESCP Business School. > Back to MBA timeline

Wharton School of Business Opens

January 1, 1881

The Wharton School of Finance and Economy of the University of Pennsylvania was established in 1881 through a donation of $100,000 by Joseph Wharton. The Business School is recognised as the world’s oldest collegiate business school. Graduate education would not be offered until many years later, with the MBA program…

First Graduate School of Business – Tuck

January 1, 1900

The first graduate school of business was established in 1900. The Tuck School of Business was founded at Dartmouth College through a donation made by Dartmouth alumnus Edward Tuck. Dartmouth College is an Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. The Tuck School of Business now offers only one…

First MBA Program Launched at Harvard

April 8, 1908

The creation of Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1908 effectively began the first MBA program, though the MBA concept was far from developed when the business school started. The first students enrolled in three courses: Accounting, Commercial Contracts, and Economic Resources of the United States. Only a quarter of the…

Case Method Proposed for MBA Teaching

January 1, 1920

The Case Method for MBA instruction effectively began when the second dean of Harvard Business School, Wallace Brett Donham (pictured on right), published a memo to the faculty in 1920. As a way to bring focus and practicality to business studies, Donham proposed adapting the case law method commonly used…

An Executive MBA Offered to Wartime Workers

January 1, 1943

The Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago offered the first Executive MBA in 1943. The initiative was a wartime response to a perceived shortage of managers in the United States. Source: Chicago Booth. With a depleted labor force, a need arose for experienced workers to learn management…

First MBA Classes Outside of the US, in Canada

September 23, 1948

MBA classes shifted outside the United States for the first time with the launch of an MBA program at Ivey Business School in Canada. Canada’s top 100 CEOs and Presidents met at Western University to determine a need for a National School of Business Administration. Out of the meeting, work…