These are the best universities to study business and management

A business or management degree can be a springboard to huge things, helping grads secure high paying, high prestige jobs at big banks, hedge funds, and consultancies. Generally speaking, the better the university, the more chance of getting to Goldman or Bridgewater Capital.

Every year, education company QS produces a comprehensive ranking of the world's best universities, broken down by region and subject. QS's latest ranking was released on Wednesday, and it includes some interesting data about which universities provide the best education in business and management.

A university's ranking is based on the institution's reputation with academics and employers, and the number of research citations the school gets per paper published in a specific discipline — in this case, business and management.

Check out the highest-ranked universities for getting a degree in business and management below:

19. Columbia University — New York-based Columbia has one of the best business and management degrees on earth through its central New York campus. It climbed from 22nd in 2016.

T=17. University of Chicago — Climbing two places from its ranking of 19th in 2017, Chicago's business school has produced famous alumni including the founder of Oracle Larry Ellison.

T=17. New York University — Beating Columbia once again, NYU is officially the best place in New York City to do a business and management degree. Students of business at the university attend the prestigious Stern School of Business.

16. University of California Los Angeles — UCLA is steadily climbing QS' ranking for business and management, climbing one place this year, having jumped five spots between 2015 and 2016.

15. National University of Singapore — The highest-rated university based solely in Asia, students of business and management at NUS can expect a good job after graduating. Its reputation amongst employers is sky-high, according to QS.

14. Northwestern University — Northwestern, close to Chicago in the northern US, has jumped eight places from 2016's ranking. Famous alumni of the college include James Allen and Edwin Booz, who went on to found consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton in the early 20th century.

13. Copenhagen Business School — Denmark's most prestigious business school has stood still in this year's QS best universities for business and management degrees.

12. HEC Paris — HEC is dedicated to teaching subjects around business, management, and finance, and that specialism tells. The university has climbed two places from 14th in 2016.

11. Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi — Bocconi, based in Milan, Italy, provides the second-best business and management degree programmes of any university in a non-English-speaking country. Unfortunately, it has slipped since 2016's ranking, when it was 10th.

10. University of California Berkeley — Climbing one place from 2016, Cal Berkeley is the second most prestigious business and management degree on the West Coast of the USA.

9. London School of Economics and Political Science — LSE is better known for producing politicians and economists (27% of all the Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded or jointly awarded to LSE alumni, current staff or former staff) but its business school is also hugely successful.

8. University of Cambridge — Last year Cambridge ranked 7th, this year it drops one place. The university teaches these degrees in the Judge Business School, named for Sir Paul Judge, a founding benefactor of the school.

7, University of Oxford — Oxford is probably most famous for its degrees in subjects like classics, history, and languages, but the university's Said Business School provides some of the best business and management degrees in the world. It swaps places with fierce rival Cambridge from 2016's list.

6. Stanford University — Stanford's Graduate School of Business is one of the most prestigious institutions in America, and that prestige filters through to all of the university's business and management degrees. It drops two places from 2016's list.

5. University of Pennsylvania — Penn isn't the most famous of the Ivy League colleges, but it does offer one of the best business and management degrees. The university's Wharton School boasts former students like Warren Buffett — who dropped out before completing his degree — and US President Donald Trump. It is unmoved from last year's ranking.

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Rising two places from 2016's ranking MIT is most famous for offering degrees in subjects like physics and astrophysics, but clearly provides a pretty decent education in business and management as well.

3. INSEAD — INSEAD keeps its place as the best university in a non-English-speaking country to study business and management. The France-based university focuses solely on postgraduate business degrees such as MBAs.

2. London Business School — Unmoved from last year, Britain's best business school is the central London institution that has educated many of the UK's business elite, including Brexit Secretary David Davis.

1. Harvard University — It's no surprise that the world's most prestigious university also offers the world's best degrees in business and management. Harvard is QS' top school in this subject area for another year, having also topped the ranking in 2016.