 Accreditation |
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Accreditation
 With so many postgraduate management programmes on offer worldwide, it is essential to have a system for independent quality assessment. The Association's accreditation service is at the heart of our commitment to management education and development. Since its inception in 1967, the Association's objectives have been:
To promote post-graduate level business education to institutions, prospective students and employers and to increase the supply of and demand for post-graduate management programmes
To ensure that the quality of post-graduate level business education produces professional business leaders
An accreditation process was established to secure these objectives. Our accreditation is:
We assess the characteristics of an institution and its programmes against a set of criteria established by our International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB). The senior academics and corporate representatives who sit on the board constantly monitor the accreditation criteria to reflect changes in business and management. Our accreditation process is rigorous and has become internationally recognised as a mark of quality.
Benefits of Accreditation
Accreditation provides important benefits for all the Association’s stakeholders:
For Potential Students
Accreditation provides a reliable list of institutions tested for quality. Where you see a school using the Association of MBAs logo, you can be certain that the entire MBA provision at that school has passed a rigorous independent assessment. Specific MBM or DBA programmes may also carry the ‘Accredited by the Association of MBAs’ logo, showing that they have been individually assessed in addition to the MBA provision at the school. Institutions can only become members of the Association through accreditation.
For Institutions
Accreditation gives international credibility to your programmes and an overview of your position against international standards. The assessment reports are detailed and thorough, highlighting the aspects of programmes which demonstrate good practice while giving specific advice on areas which need improvement. The accreditation process is designed to be as straightforward and transparent as possible.
For Graduates
Accreditation gives reassurance of your degree’s value and relevance at a time when the market risks saturation. Your qualification will be recognised by employers as carrying a stamp of quality assurance. In addition, as a graduate from an accredited school you are entitled to become a member of the Association of MBAs, giving you access to a huge network of graduates from exceptional business schools around the world.
For Employers
Accreditation guarantees quality and relevance to the professional world of management. All of our accredited programmes have rigorous selection criteria for their student cohorts, and these students are exposed to a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of business and management. They are taught by high quality faculty and they learn alongside other high-achievers from diverse business backgrounds. To recruit a graduate from an accredited programme is to recruit top talent.
We accredit the following types of postgraduate degrees in business and management:
MBA Accreditation
We currently accredit the MBA portfolios of over 142 schools worldwide. We have been formally accrediting MBA programmes since the early 1980s, and our accreditation has developed into the internationally recognised standard of quality and good practice.
Accrediting a school’s MBA provision means that we must assess every MBA course provided by an institution, and we will only recommend accreditation if every course meets our criteria. This portfolio accreditation is designed to provide as much clarity as possible to prospective students, who can be sure that where a school has Association of MBAs accreditation, every course on offer is of a consistently high standard.
Further details about MBA Accreditation
DBA Accreditation
DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) programmes have become much more widespread in recent years and there was increasing demand for an accreditation process to establish standards of quality and to distinguish the DBA from other doctoral level qualifications. Our DBA accreditation was established in 2006. The IAAB worked closely with doctoral management degree experts to devise the criteria used for accreditation.
Accreditation of DBA programmes is not available to institutions that have a non-accredited MBA.
Further details about DBA Accreditation
MBM Accreditation
Our accreditation of MBM (Masters in Business and Management) programmes was established in 2005, using criteria devised by the IAAB following an extensive period of consultation with all institutions offering accredited MBAs and with corporate bodies. This initiative was in response to demand from the Association’s individual and business school members to safeguard standards of excellence and ensure clarity about the purpose of various general management qualifications in a burgeoning market.
Until August 2007, we used the term Pre-Experience Masters in General Management (PEMM) to describe MBM programmes. The change was made to provide greater clarity, but all programmes that achieved our PEMM accreditation continute to be accredited by us as MBM programmes.
Accreditation of MBM programmes is not available to institutions that have a non-accredited MBA.
Further details about MBM Accreditation
For more information on accreditation, please read the Accreditation Review articles in Business Leadership Review, the Association’s forum for leadership development and postgraduate management education.
For those schools who have a long term interest in pursuing accreditation but do not at present feel they are able to meet all the requirements of our criteria, we offer a consultancy service.
Accredited MBA Programmes
Accredited DBA Programmes
Accredited MBM Programmes
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