Title: Quality in business education as measured by accreditation and ranking systems

Authors: Harry Costin, Diane Hamilton

Addresses: The American University of Paris, 6 rue du Colonel Combes, 75007 Paris, France. ' The American University of Paris, 6 rue du Colonel Combes, 75007 Paris, France

Abstract: This paper looks at measures of quality in business education. It considers two important business accreditation systems, AACSB and EQUIS, along with three ranking systems, those published by US News & World Report, Business Week and the Financial Times. Each of these systems is analysed within the context of educational quality, as comprised of planning, input, process and outcome measures. The measures are explicitly identified and compared in an attempt to answer the question |Are the accreditation systems and magazine rankings congruent, and do they provide a good measure of quality?|

Keywords: accreditation; AACSB; Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; EQUIS; European Quality Improvement System; business education; higher education rankings; educational outcomes; continuous improvement; US News & World Report; Business Week; Financial Times; mission driven; strategic planning; outcome measures; magazines; newspapers; quality assurance; QA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2009.027348

International Journal of Management in Education, 2009 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.249 - 269

Published online: 20 Jul 2009 *

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