In 1908 the Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA) at Harvard University was established; it offered the world's first MBA program, with a faculty of 15 plus 33 regular students and 47 special students.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business first offered working professionals the Executive MBA (EMBA) program in 1940, and this type of program is offered by most business schools today.

In 1950 the first MBA degrees were awarded outside the United States by the University of Western Ontario in Canada,^[1] followed in 1951 with the degree awarded by the University of Pretoria in South Africa.^[2] The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi in Pakistan was established in 1955 as the first Asian business school by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1957, INSEAD became the first European business school to offer an MBA program.

The MBA degree has been adopted by universities worldwide, and has been adopted and adapted by both developed and developing countries^[3].