The MBA, or master of business administration degree, is considered a basic requirement of entry into the highest offices of corporate America, including the banking system.  Bankers and investment brokers once had to hold a master’s degree in business administration, in addition to passing board exams and attaining other,  more specific designations.  The first graduate school of business in the US was the Tuck School of Business.  It was part of Dartmouth College and was the first school of higher learning conferring masters degrees  in the commercial sciences, which were the ancestors of the modern MBA degree.

The world’s first MBA program was launched in 1908 as the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University.  It began with a meager faculty of 15,  with 33 regular students and 47 special students.  Harvard was later followed by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, which offered an Executive MBA, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management.  It then gradually spread around the world, and more specific variants became popular in localized areas.

Click to expand the following infographic that helps track the history of this prestigious degree: