Founded in 1973, but tracing its history back to the establishment of the Royal College of Science and Technology's Department of Industrial Administration in 1947, the school is located on Cathedral Street within the John Anderson campus of the university.

Management education started at Glasgow's Royal College of Science and Technology in 1947 with the establishment of the Department of Industrial Administration.

[5] Despite the lack of a business school, Strathclyde was a flourishing centre of business education with 370 undergraduates, 86 postgraduates, over 400 part-time diploma students, and short post-experience courses being given to over 500 people a year at the Chesters residential centre.

[6] In 1970, the government was persuaded to fund a business school in Scotland but rather than being established at a single university the Scottish Business School was established as a partnership between the universities of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1971; it would eventually take in Stirling and Heriot-Watt before being transformed into the Confederation of Scottish Business Schools in 1987 and then the Association for Management Education and Training in Scotland in 1989.

[4][9] Business education continued to be split across multiple departments, with the business school offering post-experience postgraduate courses, the School of Business and Administration offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and other postgraduate management courses being offered by the Department of Production Management and Manufactory Technology.