Is St. Gallen or Imperial better for a Master in Management?

It depends which table and which feature you weight. On the Financial Times Masters in Management — the table that compares them directly — St. Gallen is #1 in the world (it has topped the FT MiM ranking 14 times in 15 years) and Imperial is #47, a wide gap driven heavily by salary and value-for-money. Imperial, however, is QS #9 in Management, reflecting its world-top-ten science-and-technology university halo (St. Gallen isn't separately QS-ranked in our data). The two are very different products: St. Gallen's SIM-HSG is a small, highly selective 18-month Swiss public-university programme with very low tuition and a top reported salary (~$140k); Imperial's MSc in Management is a STEM-designated, analytics-heavy one-year London master's that treats the test as optional. Choose St. Gallen for the FT #1 rank, the low tuition and the highest salary in this pair; choose Imperial for the STEM designation, the top-ten QS brand and a fast, test-optional London year.

Is the MiM cheaper at St. Gallen or Imperial?

St. Gallen is dramatically cheaper on tuition. As a Swiss public university it charges only about CHF 9,987 for the whole programme, against Imperial's roughly £47,000 for one year. The big caveat is living costs: both Switzerland and central London (Imperial is in South Kensington) are among the most expensive places to live in Europe, so a large share of your budget shifts into rent and daily costs at either. Still, on tuition alone St. Gallen is a fraction of Imperial's fee, and on an all-in basis it's typically the more economical of the two despite Swiss living costs. Fees move every cycle, so confirm the current figures and any scholarships on each school's own page.

How long is the MiM at St. Gallen vs Imperial, and are they taught in English?

Both are English-taught, but Imperial's is shorter. St. Gallen's SIM-HSG (Master in Strategy and International Management) runs about 18 months at the University of St. Gallen in German-speaking Switzerland — the programme is in English, though German helps for daily life. Imperial's MSc in Management runs about 12 months in London, with an optional extended route of around 16 months that adds a placement or project. So Imperial is the faster option, while St. Gallen's extra time reflects its in-depth strategy-and-international-management focus. Both welcome international, any-discipline graduates early in their careers. Confirm the current structure on each school's page.

Do you need a GMAT or GRE for St. Gallen or Imperial?

This is a genuine point of difference. St. Gallen's SIM-HSG is highly selective and expects a competitive admission test as part of a typical file, with reported GMAT scores in roughly the 650–740 range. Imperial's MSc in Management treats the GMAT/GRE as optional and assesses most applicants on their degree, transcript and application, though a strong score can help a borderline file. So if you'd rather not sit a test, Imperial is the more accommodating route; if you're confident in a strong score, it counts for more at St. Gallen. Always confirm the current test policy on each school's own page, since these rules change between cycles.

Why is St. Gallen FT #1 but Imperial QS #9 — and how should I read the salary figures?

The two tables reward different things. The Financial Times weights post-graduation salary, career progression and value-for-money heavily, and St. Gallen scores strongly across all of them — a high reported salary (~$140k) on very low public tuition produces an outstanding value-for-money figure that anchors its #1, with Imperial at FT #47 partly because its reported salary is lower. QS weights employer and academic reputation and research, where Imperial — the business school of a world-top-ten science-and-technology university — is far stronger (#9); St. Gallen isn't separately placed on the QS Management table in our data. Read the salaries as bands measured differently: St. Gallen's ~$140k is an FT-weighted figure, while Imperial's reported ~$85k is an FT cross-school number, not a school-published MiM salary. The honest read is that both are elite — St. Gallen on the FT table and salary, Imperial on the QS table and the STEM-university brand.

St. Gallen vs Imperial for a Master in Management

On this page

The two programmes at a glance
Rankings & brand — St. Gallen owns the FT; Imperial the QS top ten
Cost — cheap Swiss tuition vs an expensive London year
Structure & identity — a selective Swiss strategy master’s vs a STEM London year
Careers — a top-of-table Swiss outcome vs a London STEM base
How to choose

St. Gallen and Imperial are two strong but very different ways to do a Master in Management in Europe. St. Gallen’s SIM-HSG is the Financial Times’ perennial #1 — a small, selective, low-tuition Swiss master’s; Imperial’s MSc in Management is a STEM-designated, analytics-heavy one-year degree at a world-top-ten science-and-technology university in London. This guide compares them on what actually decides it, using the data from the programmes we profile — see the full St. Gallen and Imperial entries for the detail behind each figure.

The two programmes at a glance

	University of St. Gallen	Imperial College
Programme	Master in Strategy & International Management (SIM-HSG)	MSc in Management
FT MiM rank	#1	#47
QS Management rank	—	#9
Course length	18 months	12 months (16-mo option)
Tuition	~CHF 9,987 (full programme)	~£47,000
Reported salary	~$140k (FT weighted)	~$85k (FT cross-school)
Employment rate	~98%	~95% (3 months)
Cohort	~52 (highly selective)	Large, international
Test policy	GMAT/GRE expected (~650–740)	GMAT/GRE optional
Distinctive	FT #1 (14× in 15 yrs); low public tuition	STEM-designated; analytics; triple-crown
Location	St. Gallen, Switzerland	South Kensington, London
Language	English	English

(Rankings are from the Financial Times Masters in Management and QS Business Masters: Management tables we hold on each profile — two different methodologies (see how to read MiM rankings). Read them as bands, not exact positions. St. Gallen is not separately placed on the QS Management table in our data, so we leave that cell blank rather than guess; the FT table is the one that compares them directly. Imperial’s salary is an FT cross-school figure, not a school-published MiM number; St. Gallen’s is an FT-weighted figure — treat the two as differently-measured bands. Fees and figures are the programme data from the profiles we publish and move each cycle — confirm the current number on each school’s own page.)

Rankings & brand — St. Gallen owns the FT; Imperial the QS top ten

On the table that compares them directly — the Financial Times Masters in Management — St. Gallen is #1 and Imperial #47, a wide gap. And St. Gallen’s position is durable, not a one-off: SIM-HSG has topped the FT MiM ranking 14 times in 15 years. The FT weights salary, career progression and value-for-money heavily, and St. Gallen scores strongly on all of them — a high reported salary on very low public tuition gives it an outstanding value-for-money figure — while Imperial’s lower reported salary holds its FT position down.

On QS Business Masters: Management, Imperial is #9, reflecting its halo as the business school of a world-top-ten science-and-technology university; St. Gallen isn’t separately placed on that QS table in our data, so we don’t compare them there. By brand, both are heavyweight in different ways: St. Gallen for its elite finance-and-strategy alumni network across the German-speaking economies, Imperial for its STEM-university prestige and triple-crown business school. The honest read: St. Gallen leads decisively and durably on the FT table and salary; Imperial leads on the QS table and the STEM-university identity. Weigh the two tables together (see how to read MiM rankings).

Cost — cheap Swiss tuition vs an expensive London year

St. Gallen’s tuition is its quiet superpower: as a Swiss public university it charges only about CHF 9,987 for the whole programme, against Imperial’s roughly £47,000 for one year — a large gap, and exactly what drives St. Gallen’s value-for-money score and FT position. The caveat is living costs: both Switzerland and central London (Imperial sits in South Kensington) are among the most expensive places to live in Europe, so a big share of your budget shifts into rent and daily costs at either. Still, on tuition alone St. Gallen is a fraction of Imperial’s fee, and on an all-in basis it’s typically the more economical of the two despite Swiss living costs. (See how much a MiM costs in Europe and the cheapest MiM shortlist.)

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Structure & identity — a selective Swiss strategy master’s vs a STEM London year

This is the decisive difference beyond rank. St. Gallen’s SIM-HSG is a small (around 52), highly selective, 18-month Master in Strategy and International Management — an in-depth, rigorous programme in German-speaking Switzerland (taught in English) with an elite, tight-knit cohort and a powerful alumni network. Imperial’s MSc in Management sits inside a science-and-technology university: analytics, data literacy and evidence-based strategy run through the curriculum, it’s STEM-designated, it treats the test as optional, and there’s an optional extended route of about 16 months. So the choice is between a small, selective, low-tuition Swiss strategy master’s and a fast, analytical, STEM-designated London year — two genuinely different ways to study management. (For what “STEM-designated” does and doesn’t mean for a European degree, see are European MiMs STEM-designated?.)

Careers — a top-of-table Swiss outcome vs a London STEM base

Both place strongly. St. Gallen reports a ~98% employment rate and an FT-weighted salary of around $140,000 — among the highest in the entire FT MiM table — with a deep consulting, finance and strategy pipeline and an alumni network that reaches the top of German and Swiss corporate life. Imperial reports a ~95% employment rate at three months and an FT-weighted salary of around $85,000 (an FT cross-school figure, not a school-published MiM number), with a strong consulting and finance intake plus a meaningful technology pipeline reflecting its STEM identity — recruiters include Amazon, Bain, EY, PwC, Morgan Stanley, UBS, LVMH and L’Oréal. Read the two salary figures as differently-measured bands, not a like-for-like contest. The right one depends on the market and the kind of work you want; see who recruits European MiM graduates and which industries hire MiM graduates.

How to choose

Choose St. Gallen if you want the #1 FT rank (and its durability), the highest reported salary in this pair, an elite-but-low-tuition Swiss public-university programme, a small, selective cohort and a powerful strategy-and-finance alumni network — and you’re comfortable with a competitive admission test and Swiss living costs.
Choose Imperial if you want a STEM-designated, analytics-heavy master’s at a world-top-ten science-and-technology university, the higher QS rank (#9), a single intensive London year and a test-optional route — and you value the technical, data-literate lens on management over chasing the top of the FT table.

Both are excellent; they’re simply different bets on country, pedagogy and which ranking you trust. Weigh a small, selective, low-tuition Swiss strategy master’s against an analytical STEM London year, and read the FT and QS tables as bands rather than letting either decide alone. For more, compare the full St. Gallen and Imperial profiles, browse the composite rankings and the program catalogue, map deadlines on the tracker, and see the related St. Gallen vs LBS, St. Gallen vs Esade and Imperial vs IE head-to-heads, plus the best MiM in the UK shortlist. When you’re ready to build the application, the admissions toolkit walks through positioning your profile for schools at this level — and ask honestly first whether a MiM is worth it for your goals.