Hult International Business School

The Arthur D. Little School of Management was founded in 1964 by Arthur Dehon Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[9] Originally developed as an executive management education program, the school began to grant degrees after receiving full accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in 1976.[10][11] In 1996, the Arthur D. Little School of Management formed a partnership with Boston College's Carroll School of Management in order to share access to faculty and facilities.[12]

Hult Ashridge's executive education program, housed in Ashridge House, is ranked in the UK's top 10 programs.[13]

In 1929, Ashridge was formally established as the College of Citizenship with the backing of the Conservative Party.[14] In 1959, the college was re-established as a school of management under the name Ashridge Business School.[15]

Hult's San Francisco campus is located in the North Beach neighborhood, by Telegraph Hill.

In 2002 Arthur D. Little declared bankruptcy and the for-profit educational branch of the Washington Post, Kaplan Education, initiated the purchase of the Arthur D. Little School of Management (which had then changed its name to the Concord School of Management),[16] but subsequently decided against the plan. At the time, the school had 26 students. The same year, Swedish billionaire Bertil Hult purchased the Arthur D. Little School of Management, which resulted in the school's reorganization and reestablishment as Hult International Business School in 2003.

Under its restructuring, Hult established a new curriculum oriented on international business, which led to the establishment of Hult's global campuses in Dubai (2008), San Francisco (2010), Shanghai (2011), and New York (2014).[17][18]

In 2007, Hult acquired Huron University in London, a private American university located in London's Bloomsbury neighborhood, which subsequently was reestablished as Hult International Business School's London campus.[19]

In 2014, Hult International Business School acquired and merged with Ashridge Business School, creating one of the largest business schools in the world.[20] After 2015, the two schools began operating as a singular entity, with the establishment of Ashridge Executive Education as Hult's executive program.[21]

Hult opened its undergraduate campus in London, near the City of London financial centre, in 2014.[22]

The Economist Intelligence Unit, supported by Hult International Business School, launched the Business Professor of the Year Award in 2012.[23][24]

By 2014 Hult had become the world's largest graduate business school by enrollment, allegedly due in large part to an aggressive recruitment program led by Hult recruiters initiating cold calls to TOEFL and GMAT candidates. In response to a 2018 article about the school's alleged recruitment process, the school's chief marketing officer said that “It sounds like a disgruntled former employee has shared some doubts about our stats which is of course unfortunate, but we can’t expect all members of staff to be familiar with the rigorous, standardized process surrounding rankings and accreditation...The fact that we are experiencing continued success in both our ongoing accreditations process as well as in the premier rankings of business school programs is a testament to the positive impact of our unique approach to global higher education.”[25]

Hult's Master of International Business program was ranked #17 in The Economist's ranking of Masters in Management programs worldwide in 2019.

In 2020, Hult's Ashridge Executive Education was ranked #16 in the Financial Times Executive Education Top 50 Schools list.[35]

In 2022, Hult's Executive MBA was ranked among the top 100 in the world in the QS International Trade Rankings.[36]

On 1 July 2020, Hult and Ernst & Young (EY) announced the EY Tech MBA by Hult, consisting of online learning, practical experiences, insight papers and a capstone project. This MBA is now offered by EY free to all its people, regardless of rank or location and can be done over any duration. The curriculum is updated every four months.[37]