What is EFMD mission?

EFMD''s mission is to promote excellence in the management development profession.

What is the EFMD''s role in higher business education?

EFMD strives to provide a platform in Europe to bring together leaders in the management education profession in order to reflect upon major problems that they have in common. The aim is to establish a learning community within the discipline. In pursuit of this objective, EFMD does not limit itself to Europe, but seeks to serve as an ambassador for European values and practices in management education throughout the world. It works closely with representative organisations outside of Europe and participates actively in all major events of importance to our profession around the world, for instance the Global Forum, and of course AACSB and GMAC meetings.

What are the reasons for creating EQUIS?

EQUIS was created in order to provide a European system of quality assessment and accreditation. The fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the EFMD, is to raise the standard of management education in Europe, both individually for Schools and Faculties and systemically for national management education structures. It facilitates standard setting, benchmarking, mutual learning, and the dissemination of good practice.

How many programs are accredited by the EFMD?

EQUIS has now accredited 55 institutions and more than 150 management education academics and professionals have participated in peer review assessments around the world. The impact upon institutional development and quality improvement has already been considerable. There is an increasing demand from schools outside Europe with institutions from the United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Asia having already received the EQUIS Label.

Are there only European Schools awarded EQUIS accreditation?

EQUIS has not been designed to substitute national accreditation systems, but rather to give recognition to institutions that, in addition to high standing in their own national environments, have demonstrated that they emerge as players on a wider international market. An objective of EQUIS, particularly in the early stages, was to contribute to the constitution of a European market for management education, over and above the series of compartmentalised national markets. Students and employers often know which institutions in their home country have a reputation for high quality, but they need some guidance as to which institutions meet the highest international standards in the wider European environment. With this in mind EQUIS was designed to help prospective students and recruiting companies from one country to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education for international management.

There are, therefore, three related objectives for the EQUIS system

1. To provide market information to students and employers as to which institutions, in addition to their national reputation, meet international standards for quality providers. EQUIS accelerates the emergence of an international market for management education by increasing cross-border registration of students and the international recruitment of graduates.
2. To provide an instrument for comparison and permanent benchmarking. Although the system in no way attempts to impose uniform standards, it allows schools to position themselves against international criteria and encourages convergence on best practice.
3. To promote quality improvement internationally. The EQUIS system is deliberately designed to promote continuous improvement at all levels,

• For the schools, through the process of assessment. The standards applied are dynamic, not fixed and rigid. The process is designed to help schools progress.
• For the different national management education systems. The accreditation process provides an on-going mechanism for disseminating accumulated experience across borders.
• For the profession, by promoting the understanding of what is involved in the international practice of management. The EQUIS system provides a coherent set of quality standards reflecting the distinctive values and practice in European management education. The EQUIS process is designed to clarify the specific characteristics of different management education systems and the wider context within which they operate.

The key features of the EQUIS process and standards can thus be summarised as follows:

• EQUIS is an international and intercultural approach to accreditation. It is global in scope but European in inspiration. The EQUIS criteria reflect some of the major characteristics and dominant values in European management education.
• EQUIS looks at the performance of the institution taken as a whole, including all its programmes and not just the MBA programme.
• EQUIS is closely linked to national quality improvement bodies.
• EQUIS is designed to be responsive to corporate concerns, involving close links with companies through the adoption of outcome-based perspectives and criteria
• the use of corporate auditors
• corporate representation on the EQUIS Steering Committee & Awarding Body the opportunity for corporate stakeholders to involve themselves in the management education process
• specific criteria for executive education.
• EQUIS stresses the personal development of managers, and their entrepreneurial and managerial skills.
• EQUIS is dynamic and forward looking with a concern for new trends.
• EQUIS is conceived as a learning process with an international forum for defining the relevant quality criteria.
• EQUIS is supported by a broad international body of reputed academic institutions, major corporations and national professional associations. Senior business school deans and staff, HR and MD directors, consultants and assessment experts form the pool from which the international review teams are drawn.

Should accreditation be the only criteria when choosing a school?

The answer to this is "no", since there are plenty of dimensions an individual can take into consideration to choose a school. Accreditation should be a means to push schools to continuously improve, and certainly not a mere standard.