TBS Education

TBS Education, formerly Toulouse Business School and Groupe ESC Toulouse (École supérieure de Commerce de Toulouse; Occitan: Escòla superiora de Comèrci de Tolosa), is a triple crown business school founded in 1903 by the Toulouse Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This highly selective grande école (institute of higher education recruiting students from 2 year post-baccalaureat preparatory classes) offers several types of training ranging from Bachelors (bac + 3) and Masters (bac + 5) in the field of management, including the most prestigious of them called the "Grande Ecole" Program (PGE), and a joint DBA (bac + 8) with the University of Toulouse, Toulouse School of Management. It holds triple accreditation-EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA-and is a member of both the Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées and the Conférence des grandes écoles (CGE). It offers business courses in English, French, and Spanish to over 7,000 students, many international, trained each year in its initial and continuing training programmes, and has business schools located in Toulouse, Paris, Barcelona, and Casablanca. Research is focused on emerging sectors; the school has developed two clusters: the first dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and data analysis, the second to aerospace mobility.

In 1902, a mixed committee representing the Chamber of Commerce and the municipality of Toulouse, opened a year of preparation for the entrance examination for a future grande école. The ESC Toulouse was founded in 1903 by the Toulouse Chamber of Commerce and Industry and recognized as a Consular Higher Education Institution (EESC) by the Ministry of Education in France. The school's initial vocation was to respond to the needs of the local business community for able business administrators. In 1947, a competitive examination, the structure of which is common to the twelve French business schools (grandes écoles de commerce), was set up. In 1982, the first specialized postgraduate training courses for specialized master's degrees (bac + 5) from the Conférence des grandes écoles were awarded.

In 2013, ESC Toulouse changed its name to Toulouse Business School, and in 2016, TBS moved from a non-profit status to that of an EESC (Établissement d’Enseignement Supérieur Consulaire – Consular Higher Education Establishment). In 2021, the name was changed to TBS Education to better reflect its multinational education and campuses.

TBS Education is a Grande école, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.

Although they are more expensive than public universities in France, Grandes Écoles typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies, and many of their programs are taught in English. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the Grandes Écoles. Many of the top ranked business schools in Europe are members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), as is TBS, and out of the 250 business schools in France, only 39 are CGE members.

Degrees from TBS are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (French: Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale). TBS is further accredited by the elite international business school accrediting organizations and it holds the much coveted Triple accreditation: The European Foundation for Management Development (EQUIS), The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), and Association of MBAs (AMBA)

In 2023, the Financial Times ranked TBS Education: 46th among European Business Schools, its Masters in Management 37th, and its EMBA 62nd.

TBS Education has business and management schools in these cities: Toulouse, Barcelona, Casablanca, and Paris.