EFMD Quality Improvement System
The leading international system of quality assessment,
improvement and accreditation of business schools
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EQUIS ACCREDITED SCHOOLS
EQUIS BENEFITS
GLOBAL RECOGNITION
EQUIS provides you with a seal of excellence for the whole business school as well as a significant differentiation point in the increasingly competitive business education landscape.
INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKING
You can take advantage of international comparison and benchmarking through the process of evaluation by an international peer review team, including a senior corporate practitioner.
STRATEGIC ADVICE
EQUIS offers you strategic guidance for quality improvement and future development of your institution and all its activities, to keep you up to date in a rapidly changing global landscape.
LEARNING COMMUNITY
Being accredited makes you part of a vibrant community of mutual learning and sharing good practice with business schools coming from different higher-education systems.
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EQUIS FRAMEWORK
The EQUIS process is based upon a conceptual framework of quality criteria which are reviewed continuously by an international committee of EFMD members.
The EQUIS evaluation considers each component of the framework and the inter-relationships between them. Standards have been developed for each component (see below).
CONTEXT, GOVERNANCE & STRATEGY
This standard serves to describe the school and its position in the regulatory and competitive environment in which it operates. The school’s overall strategic agenda is also assessed.
PROGRAMMES
The Programmes should be well designed with clear learning outcomes and an appropriate balance between knowledge acquisition and skills acquisition.
STUDENTS
The school should ensure the quality of its students through appropriate selection processes, through the management of student progression in its programmes, and through the provision of appropriate student services. The school should actively help students to define their future professional orientation.
FACULTY
The Faculty should be well qualified and should be active in both research, and learning and teaching. Sufficient core faculty is needed to cover the major disciplines and constitute a viable body of distinctive expertise (i.e. a minimum of 25 FTE).
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
The school’s output from its Research & Development activities should make an impact on the constituencies that are important to and part of the school’s strategy, such as academic research, applied research as well as pedagogical research and innovation that may affect the learning and teaching strategy.
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
While not all business schools carry out Executive Education (and it is not a requirement for EQUIS), this activity should be appropriately integrated into the school’s overall strategy and into its central management systems.
RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION
The school needs to have sufficient resources, including administration, to be able to fulfil its operational commitments and to demonstrate its financial viability and institutional continuity.
INTERNATIONALISATION
The school should have a clearly articulated strategy and policies for internationalisation, encompassing its student body, faculty, international partnerships, research activity and corporate connections.
ETHICS, RESPONSIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY
The school should have a clear understanding of its role as a “globally responsible organisation” and its contribution to ethics and sustainability. This understanding should be reflected in the school’s mission, strategy and activities.
CONNECTIONS WITH PRACTICE
Business schools need to be closely connected to the world of practice, widely defined as commercial, policy and public organisations, which represent the end users of their output of graduates and of knowledge created by the school.
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EQUIS NEWS
- EQUIS re-accreditations of five business schools
- Initial EQUIS accreditations of College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) and Curtin Business School
- Lingnan (University) College; School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University; and HEC Montréal EQUIS re-accredited
- EQUIS re-accreditation of Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Rennes School of Business; Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa and Université Paris-Dauphine
- Five-year EQUIS re-accreditation of five business schools
- EQUIS accreditation of La Rochelle Business School, Excelia Group
- Four schools are now EQUIS re-accredited