EFMD's EQUIS Accreditation Celebrates 10 years, 100 Plus Business Schools, 30 Countries and 1 Goal -- Raising the Level of International Business Education

EFMD's EQUIS Accreditation Celebrates 10 years, 100 Plus Business Schools, 30 Countries and 1 Goal -- Raising the Level of International Business Education

February 28, 2007

EQUIS Has Now Accredited 105 Business Schools


    BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 28 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- On
Tuesday, 27th February, 8 schools were awarded EQUIS
accreditation, which takes the number of accredited schools
to 105 across 30 countries --

    -- Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam,
Netherlands
    -- CERAM Sophia Antipolis, France
    -- Faculty of Business, City University of Hong Kong,
China
    -- Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, China
    -- Faculty of Business, University of Victoria, Canada
    -- ICN -- Business School, France
    -- Korea University Business School, Korea
    -- Vienna University of Economics & Business
Administration, Austria

    Prof. Eric Cornuel, CEO of EFMD said, "From its
inception, EQUIS has targeted top-quality international
business schools and we are delighted to welcome 8 more
leading schools into the EQUIS community. EQUIS started as
a European initiative for the benchmarking and
accreditation of business schools but it is now the leading
global accreditation system. A distinctive feature of EQUIS
is closely related to its European origin: appreciation for
diversity and in one decade EQUIS has had an enormously
positive impact on the quality of management education
worldwide." 

    EQUIS was created in 1997 by a mandate of EFMD's member
business schools including Bocconi, HEC Paris, IESE, IMD,
INSEAD, ESADE, London Business School, and Rotterdam School
of Management. It was inspired by the need to develop an
INTERNATIONAL accreditation system for those business
schools, wherever they were in the world that were trying
to make an impact beyond their domestic frontiers. 

    In designing EQUIS, EFMD responded to 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 remains a
key objective of EQUIS: to provide differential value over
other accreditation systems to a highly select number of
world business schools that strive for excellence. 

    Business schools that are accredited by EQUIS must
demonstrate not only high quality in all dimensions of
their activities, but a high degree of
internationalization. EQUIS also believes that business
schools should be as closely connected to the real world of
business as schools of medicine are to working hospitals.
There must be a balance between high academic quality and
the professional relevance provided by close interaction
with the corporate world. 

    Prof. Julio Urgel, the Director of EQUIS said,
"Today is a special milestone for EQUIS reaching over
100 accredited schools. The 100th school to be accredited
was actually the City University of Hong Kong and for the
first time we also welcome a school from Korea (Korea
University Business School) into the EQUIS community. We
embrace the diversity all the new schools bring to the
network and believe this is what makes EQUIS the most
sophisticated and innovative improvement and benchmarking
tool available for management education."

    More information is available at
http://www.efmd.org/equis .

    About EFMD

    EFMD advances excellence in management development in
Europe and worldwide by building links between leading
business schools and companies, creating and disseminating
knowledge on best practices and changing trends and
providing access to benchmarking tools and accreditations
(EQUIS, EPAS, CEL, CLIP). With more than 600 member
organizations from academia, business, public service and
consultancy in 70 countries, EFMD provides a unique forum
for information, research, networking and debate on
innovation and best practice in management development.


    For more information, please contact:

     Matthew Wood, 
     Communications Director
     EFMD Aisbl, 
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail] 


SOURCE  EFMD Aisbl