Content area
Full text
Strategic Themes and Challenges facing Business Schools. Howard Thomas
1. Introduction
EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) is the European Foundation for Management Development's (EFMD) international system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. EQUIS was created in 1997 by a mandate of the EFMD's member business schools with the active support of a number of the top schools in Europe, including Bocconi, HEC Paris, Helsinki School of Economics, IESE, IMD, INSEAD, Instituto de Empresa, London Business School, and Rotterdam School of Management.
The creation of EQUIS was prompted by the need to develop an accreditation system targeted at those business schools around the world that were trying to make an impact beyond their domestic frontiers. At the time of its creation, there were no established international accreditation systems in the field of management or business administration. However, a small number of national accreditation systems were taking the first steps toward their internationalisation. AMBA, the Association of MBAs in the UK, moved to accrediting MBA programmes outside the UK for the first time. The AACSB, who had provided, for several decades, national accreditation for business schools in the USA, also decided to go international. Today, EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA are the three most highly regarded international accreditations in the business field in higher education. Figures 1-3 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] show the countries in which EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA have at least one school accredited as of the end of September 2006. The number of business schools accredited in each country is also indicated, together with the percentage relative to the total number of schools accredited by each system.
In creating EQUIS, the EFMD tried to meet some of the needs faced by international business schools that AACSB, AMBA or any other national accreditation scheme were not satisfying or likely to satisfy in the foreseeable future. This continues to be one of the objectives of EQUIS: providing a differential value with respect to other accreditations to a select number of business schools worldwide that strive for excellence. This assertion is not an underestimation of the job done by other accreditation agencies. It is simply the aim of EQUIS to try to do something different for a particular...