按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
of Management in the 1960s。 In the days when two…year MBAs were the
norm; Cranfield students did their second year at Harvard。 Then it was
Cranfield’s turn; with its senior faculty spinning out to help launch schools
at Oxford and INSEAD。
300 Appendix
Below are the key sources of information to keep up to date in the MBA
world。
Setting standards
The world has moved on from having ‘degree mills’; where the award is
effectively purchased; to ‘accreditation mills’; where the recognition of
the university awarding the MBA has been purchased。 That in turn gives
a spurious; perhaps even criminal; quality standard to institutions that
use such recognition for marketing purposes only。 There are a number
of legitimate organizations concerned with se。。ing standards in terms of
teaching; research and resources in business schools。 They do a thorough
job of work and charge accordingly。 Business schools pay anything from
£35;000 to £100;000 to gain accreditation and as much again in administrative
pain。
Among the accrediting organizations of repute are:
。 The Council on Higher Education (che。ac。za) in South Africa。
。 The Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation
(fibaa) in Bonn; Germany; which accredits schools in Germany;
Austria and Switzerland。
。 The Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (
acbsp); which typically accredits smaller; private US schools;
though it does have Business and puter University College BCU
University in Lebanon on its books。
。 The International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (
iacbe); founded in 1997; has 200 accredited institutions; mostly
undergraduate and mostly in the United States。 Pontificia Universidad
Católica; Lima; Perú; with five MBA programmes; one in association
with Maastricht School of Management; is something of an exception。
。 The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (chea) is a
consortium of a number of US regional accreditation agencies; which
in turn accredit mostly US schools。 Such international schools as are on
their books are usually very small; with strong US connections; such as
the American University in Blagoevgrad; Bulgaria; for example; which
offers a part…time executive MBA。
Three associations; however; dominate the field when it es to accrediting
the top…ranking business schools。 A score of the very top; mostly non…US;
business schools take the value of accreditation so seriously that they have
signed up to all three。 You might be forgiven for thinking that to be more
a sign of insecurity than a demonstration of value; remembering of course
that it is the students who pay for accreditation in every respect!
Appendix 301
The Association of MBA
AMBA (mbaworld); founded in 1967; has accredited 150 business
schools in 68 countries。 Its initial purpose was to help forge links
between the MBA alumni of the small but growing number of schools in the
UK; but subsequently it has branched out into the accreditation business。
Unusually for this type of activity; membership is open to any individual
who went to; or is studying or is enrolled to study; at an AMBA…accredited
business school。 It wants to be sure that schools offering an MBA: have
a clear strategy and mission; the faculty is large enough for the task; at
least 75 per cent of faculty have a masters or doctoral degree in a discipline
relevant to the subject for which they are responsible; and students must
have a minimum of 3 years’ work experience。
The Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business
AACSB (aacsb。edu); founded in 1916 by; among others; Columbia
University; Dartmouth College; Harvard University; and Chicago;
Pennsylvania and Yale Universities; this the oldest and largest of the
three accrediting bodies。 It is; however; dominated by North American
institutions; with less than 10 per cent of its member institutions ing
from outside the United States and Canada。 But that may all be set to change。
AACSB; worried by petition from ranking provided by newspapers
and journals and concerned that these may be distorting schools’ behaviour
and misleading prospective MBA candidates; has invested in a business
school database of its own。 Since 2005; AACSB has published searchable
profiles of its 600 member business schools on its website and is the only
source of information about the whole business school and is the most
prehensive in terms of its coverage of the market。 Here you will find
details of schools such as HHL – Leipzig Graduate School of Management
(Germany); Toulouse Business School – Groupe ESC Toulouse (France)
and United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) (United Arab Emirates) that
may not show up in the rankings; but have high academic standards and
creditable results。
The European Quality Improvement System
EQUIS (efmd 》 Accreditation 》 Equis); formed in 1997; is the
newest and smallest of accrediting organizations。 It was set up by the
European Foundation of Management Development (EFMD) and accredits
113 institutions in 32 countries。 Though small in the accreditation world;
with over 15;000 management development professionals as members
302 Appendix
of the EFMD network and 650 organizations from academia; business;
public service and consultancy in more than 75 countries; its impact has
been significant。 EQUIS is not; however; primarily focused on the MBA。
Its scope covers all programmes offered by an institution; from the first
degree up to the PhD。 It has three important criteria: a business school
should show international standards of quality; have significant levels of
internationalization and integrate the needs of the business world into
its programmes。 EQUIS membership is almost the mirror image of that
of AACSB。 You won’t find Harvard; Wharton; Tuck or indeed many US
business schools of any calibre on its books。 But then you won’t find schools
such as Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Escuela de Administración;
Chile; the University of Auckland Business School; New Zealand; Ume。
School of Business; Ume。 University; Sweden or the Coppead Graduate
School of Business; Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Brazil on AACSB’s
books。
RANKING THE SCHOOLS
Business school rankings have been around since the late 1980s; when a
couple of US general business publications realized that ‘best of’ lists were
a powerful tool for generating advertising copy from business schools
and upping circulation from potential students thirsty for knowledge。
Publications producing rankings have mushroomed; as have the
methodologies and data collection techniques employed。 Few business
schools believe that the ratings are of great help to students when making
their choice。 Nonetheless; most continue to participate; even to tailor their
activities towards improving their rank even at the expense of some aspects
of MBA content。 The logic is simple: rankings generate publicity。 If a school
is in and going up; it provides helpful PR; if it is out; or going down; it
will have to explain why to prospective students and to its alum