Nottingham University Business School is joining an elite global group of EQUIS-accredited business schools in management education. Extensive visits earlier in the year by an international EQUIS peer review team assessed Nottingham’s operations in the UK and overseas.
EQUIS, which stands for European Quality Improvement System, is an accreditation scheme for leading institutions in business education. It is granted and run by EFMD, the European Foundation for Management Development, in Brussels.
Uniquely, this EQUIS accreditation will apply to all of the Business School’s international operations, including campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia. Both the Nottingham and China campuses were visited separately for the EQUIS evaluation. Nottingham University Business School will be accredited for a period of three years before it is reassessed.
It takes several years to prepare for the rigorous process of accreditation. EQUIS assesses institutions as a whole. Not only all degree programmes but also all activities and sub-units of the institution, including teaching, research, e-learning units, executive education provision and community outreach, are considered. Institutions must be primarily devoted to management education.
Responding to the news, Professor Leigh Drake, Director of the Business School, said: “Nottingham University Business School is delighted to join a select international group of the world’s top business schools – just 128 out of more than 7,000 worldwide in 34 countries have EQUIS accreditation – so this is an excellent and significant achievement.
“To be awarded EQUIS accreditation for Nottingham University Business School in the UK, China, and Malaysia endorses and enhances our ambitious, multi-campus strategy and confirms the quality of our staff, students, programmes and facilities. EQUIS sets very high standards and we are extremely proud to join this elite group as a truly international business school.
“EQUIS focus strongly on corporate links, internationalisation and contribution to the community, which are increasingly important attributes of leading business schools, and we are very grateful for the involvement and support of our alumni and corporate friends and associates in contributing to this success.”
EQUIS is a mission based accreditation with an international focus and covers the entire School and all its activities – staff, students, programmes, research, contribution to the community, resources and administration, internationalisation, corporate connections. It is among the most prestigious of the accrediting bodies.
Since 1993, Nottingham University Business School has also held accreditation from AMBA, the Association of MBAs, for the quality of its MBA courses. The School recently went through a successful assessment from the AMBA team and was awarded a further five years of accreditation.
Scott Goddard, Director of International Relations and Chair of the School’s Accreditation Committee, commented that: “EQUIS is one of the most stringent of the international business school accreditation bodies.
“The Business School has introduced significant improvements as a result of the rigorous self-assessment and peer review process of the accreditation. We are now progressing in our aim to be a top 50 school worldwide. Our ambition is now to add AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation to complete the ‘triple crown’.”
EQUIS, the European Quality Improvement System, is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration.
Its scope covers all programmes offered by an institution from the first degree up to the PhD, including non-degree programmes. EQUIS has established its prestige and recognition worldwide. In its twelve years of existence, EQUIS has accredited 124 institutions across 34 countries from all five continents. The impact of EQUIS in raising the standard of management education worldwide is widely recognised.
EFMD, the European Foundation for Management Development (http://www.efmd.org), is the main network organisation for progressive business schools in Europe and worldwide and leading corporations committed to executive development.
Posted on 16th June 2010