EQUIS MBA

What is the EQUIS MBA?

EQUIS is a quality assurance scheme which is run as a service to worldwide management education by EFMD - which is the European Foundation for Management Development. EQUIS aims to be the leading international system of accreditation, quality assessment and improvement for higher education institutions that specialize in business and management administration. The fundamental objective of EQUIS is linked to EMFD's mission, which is to raise management education standards worldwide. This means that standard setting, mutual learning, benchmarking and good practice dissemination is facilitated by EQUIS across all borders.

Whilst being global in its scope, EQUIS is European in its inspiration. It was designed by Europeans and managed by Europeans. European values and practices underpin EQUIS. But the framework that is used for assessing quality in the highly diverse cultural and institutional contexts is a global one.

EQUIS counts diversity as a value to live by. They also feel that there is not a best model for a business school. What they want to avoid is a standardization of programme formats, strategic choices and course content for the degrees that they are rating. EQUIS accepts that every country will have its own traditional approach to education and also that the design, length, content and the learning objectives will be different for each country and sometimes within countries. It should also be noted that EQUIS doesn't just focus on MBA courses or on any specific programmes. It covers all of the programs in business and management offered by all institutions right from the first undergraduate degree up to the Ph.D. So, diversity is recognized and the strengths of the different approaches to management higher education are also recognized.

In the first five years of existence, some 50 institutions were accredited in 14 countries in Europe . 10 more in countries like Brazil , Canada , Australia , Mexico , South Africa and the United States were also accredited. This means that EQUIS's prestige and recognition is now worldwide. Now there is spontaneous applications coming from all five of the main continents, including more than half outside Europe . 

Institutions who achieve the EQUIS Quality label are recognized not just in their domestic environment but in the international arena. Therefore they need to be able to demonstrate  a generally high quality in all their activities but also that there is a large amount of internationalization. Thus, EQUIS are seeking to find institutions distinguished by an international dimension. This is a response both to the companies that recruit worldwide and also the students who wish to get education outside their own country.

So if you take an MBA course that is accredited by EQUIS you are taking a course that is truly international, relevant to the corporate world as well as being forward looking and dynamic.