European Quality Improvement System

The EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) is a school accreditation system. It specializes in higher education institutions of management and business administration, run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). As of February 2017, EQUIS has accredited 167 institutions in 41 countries around the world.

EQUIS was created in 1997 under Gordon Shenton and the current director is Michael Osbaldeston. In the past 20 years of existence the organization has accredited 167 institutions in 41 countries.

The accreditation is awarded to business schools based on general quality. The process also takes into account the business school's level of internationalization, which is not a strict requirement for accreditation by the other two major international accreditation bodies: AACSB and AMBA. So far all fully accredited EQUIS business schools applying for AACSB accreditation have succeeded, which has not been the case the other way.

EQUIS accreditation can be granted for three years (with annual progress reports on the areas of improvement required) or for five years (with a mid-term progress report on development objectives required).

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