Business School, Beijing Normal University

BNU Business School Successfully Passed the EQUIS Accreditation

Time :2016-12-30

Recently, the Quality Accreditation Committee of European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) formally notifies that, after being reviewed and voted by EQUIS Accreditation Committee in its conference on December 13, 2016, BNUBS passed EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) Accreditation successfully.

EQUIS, as the quality accreditation system established by the European Management Development Foundation for the global elite business school, is known for its comprehensive and rigorous assessment and one of the most authoritative accreditation system internationally. EQUIS accreditation shows that BNUBS has reached the quality standards established by EQUIS, and attained the world-class level in terms of some indicators. Up till December, 2016, only over 160 business schools from more than 40 countries or regions have been accreditated, with the pass rate of less than 3%.

BNUBS applied for EFMD members in 2013 and formally proposed EQUIS accreditation eligibility application in December 2014. In March 2015, EFMD dispatched experts to conduct on-site assessment and instruct accreditation work. In the same month, voted by the EFMD accreditation committee, BNUBS was approved of accreditation eligibility unanimously. Subsequently, BNUBS began all kinds of work in the self-assessment phase.

From May 17 to 19, 2016, BNUBS received an on-site accreditation review from the EQUIS Accreditation Panel. The EQUIS site accreditation group, with the experts of Professor Angus Laing, Dean of the School of Management, Lancaster University in UK, Professor Marie Wilson, Vice President and Dean of the School of Business, University of South Australia, Professor Ye Jianming, Dean of School of Management, Xiamen University, Professor Michel Marchand, former General Manager of the Training Department of France Electric Power Group, conducted a comprehensive inspection. Liu Chuansheng, Chairperson of BNU, Dong Qi, President of BNU, Chen Guangju, Hao Fanghua, Zhou Zuoyu, Chen Li, Vice Presidents, responsible staff from relevant functional departments of BNU, BNUBS leadership team, representatives of teachers, students and alumni, members of the International Advisory Committee of BNUBS, representatives of cooperative partners and etc. participated in the talks and related evaluations conducted by the EQUIS expert group. During the three-day on-site certification, the expert group carried out a comprehensive inspection of BNUBS’s governance and development strategies, teaching programs, teachers and students, scientific research, senior executive training, resource allocation, internationalization level, corporate relations and social responsibility and etc.. After 17 rounds of talks and on-site investigation of related teaching facilities and resources, the expert group fully affirmed the good reputation and influence of BNUNS, spoke highly of BNUBS’s strategic mission of “Promoting Business and Humanism to Serve the Nation and the World” as well as its full penetration and implementation in all aspects of BNUBS, and praised the first-class faculty, students, teaching quality, characteristic degree programs, social responsibility, high degree of internationalization and high level of alumni resources and cooperative partners. The expert group also put forward pertinent suggestions and recommendations for the development of BNUBS.

In December, 2016, after experiencing 7 phases of consultation, application of accreditation qualification, short-term expert interviews, attainment of accreditation qualification, self-assessment report writing, experts’ on-site assessment, accreditation committee’s review and vote, BNUBS finally passed the accreditation of EQUIS successfully.

The predecessor of BNUBS is the Department of Political Economics of BNU. Founded in 1979, BNUBS, with the famous economist Mr. Tao Dayong as the first Department Head, was renamed the Department of Economics in 1985. In June 1996, it was organized as the School of Economics and renamed BNUBS in March 2004. Relying on BNU’s more than 100 years of historical heritage and cultural accumulation, BNUBS, with the mission of “Promoting Business and Humanism to Serve the Nation and the World”, is committed to establishing the teaching mode that closely combines management education, humanities and social responsibility. In the past 40 years, BNUBS has grown into a major talent training and scientific research base in the discipline of economics and business administration in China.

In recent years, rooted in China, BNUBS, with the international first-class talent training system, teaching staff and management system as the reference standard, is committed to building the first-class economic and administration school of humanistic and international influence. Participation in international accreditation is an important initiative to achieve this strategic objective. Through carrying out the EQUIS certification work and in line with the principle of “promoting construction through evaluation”, BNUBS has systematically combed the strategy and education quality assurance system of BNUBS, improved the ability of governance and resource integration, and promoted the internationalization level and international influence of BNUBS and even BNU. BNUBS’s pass of the EQUIS accreditation signifies that the quality of education and the international level of education of BNUBS have been widely recognized by international counterparts, thus laying a solid foundation for the further development of BNUBS.