Introduction of EQUIS Accreditation

EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) is a global, non-profit, membership driven organization dedicated to management development, recognized globally as an accreditation body for business schools, business school programs, and corporate universities.

EFMD operates the EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System), which is one of the leading international systems of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration.

EQUIS accreditation is a comprehensive institutional accreditation system for business and management schools. It is acknowledged worldwide by potential students, faculty, employers, corporate clients and the media, often being a pre-requisite for entry to rankings. EQUIS covers all the activities of school, including degree and non-degree programs, knowledge generation and contribution to the community. It also considers the great diversity of national cultures and educational systems around the world, and recognizes that it is essential to understand the particularities of the local context in every assessment process.

To ensure the rigorous quality control, benchmarking the school against international standards in terms of governance, programs, students, faculty, research, internationalization, ethics, responsibility and sustainability, as well as corporate engagement, SEBA officially proceed the EQUIS accreditation from April, 2018.

EQUIS Process
EQUIS process will typically require 2-3 years and in the most favourable circumstances, may be achieved within 15 months of application.
1.Enquiry
Non-binding preliminary advice is offered to the management of your school about the likelihood of being declared eligible for EQUIS. A draft datasheet is a preferred way of providing structured information about your school.

2.Formal application
A school that wishes to enter the EQUIS accreditation process sends an application form to the EQUIS office and completes a datasheet.

3.Briefing visit
A briefing visit will be organised by the EQUIS office as soon as possible and usually not later than three months after receipt of the formal application for entry into the EQUIS process.
This stage is designed to make sure that schools enter the EQUIS scheme with a full understanding of both the criteria and the process.

4.Pre-eligibility with optional advisory service
After sharing the briefing visit report with the school, the EQUIS office, upon request of the school, assigns an advisor who supports the school during the stage leading up to the formal application for eligibility.

5.Application for EQUIS eligibility
The school applies for eligibility by submitting a letter or formal email to the EQUIS office indicating its plan for submission to the EQUIS Committee and a final, updated datasheet, at the latest one month in advance of the target committee meeting.

6.The eligibility decision
The EQUIS Committee will declare a school eligible if it is satisfied that the school meets the eligibility criteria.

7.Self-assessment
The self-assessment report should cover the ten chapters of the EQUIS Standards and Criteria document in accordance with the guidance for self-assessment in Section 5 of the process manual. In this phase, pre-review advisory is a mandatory component of the process.

8.Peer review visit
A team of peer reviewers will visit the school to assess its standing as regards the EQUIS standards and to draw up recommendations for future progress.
The peer review report sets out the team’s final assessment of the school against the EQUIS quality criteria together with its recommendation to the EQUIS Accreditation Board regarding accreditation.

9.Accreditation
With the formal agreement of the school, the peer review report is submitted to the Accreditation Board for the final decision on accreditation. The outcome will be 5-year accreditation, 3-year accreditation or non-accreditation.

10.Continuous improvement following accreditation
All schools within the EQUIS system will be required to actively pursue a development plan, negotiated with the EQUIS office in the case of a 5-year accreditation or determined by the Accreditation Board in the case of a 3-year accreditation.

11.Re-accreditation
A school that wishes to maintain its accreditation must enter a process of re-accreditation before expiry of the three- or five-year period.

In September 2021, SEBA was accredited by EQUIS.