Going Beyond Accreditation: How to Measure Quality in Business. Schools. A Summary. GBSM 2012 Annual Conference, New Delhi, India

Transcription

1 Going Beyond Accreditation: How to Measure Quality in Business Schools A Summary Eon Smit, Stellenbosch Business School GBSM 2012 Annual Conference, New Delhi, India

2 Introduction This paper deals with the roots of business school accreditation, quality indicators in the business school industry, unique challenges for African business schools and the reasons why some schools do not and will not seek accreditation. It concludes with some reflections on the future of accreditation. The Roots of Accreditation One of the primary drivers for organised business school accreditation can be found in the character of the imperfect market(s) in business education, on one hand characterised by the non- homogeneous educational product offerings faced by relatively unsophisticated clients in the form of potential students or potential corporate clients. This results in situations of pronounced asymmetries in information, knowledge and understanding which is further exacerbated by high product prices and the global integration of the education industry. As is usual under similar conditions, this has given rise to a quest for regulation or selfregulation to which different interest groups have responded with different solutions leading to different quality criteria and models administered by different accreditation agencies. In some instances the clients of business schools represented by industry pooled resources to establish quality norms and to establish an accreditation framework (for example the EFMD through EQUIS), in other cases the business school profession itself stepped in to assure quality (the AACSB for example) and in still other instances graduates of business schools joined forces to protect the quality of their own degrees ( MBA students through AMBA for example). National educational authorities worldwide provide further quality insurance under national quality systems in the wider domain of education. All of these agencies protect standards in business education usually at some international norm set and put a quality stamp on institutions that satisfy the rigorous criteria. These agencies provide a comprehensive service in so far as their services cover the total market for business education, viewed from both the supply and the demand side. In the competitive world of business schools an accreditation stamp provides the surety total quality or at least some important dimension of quality and hence local and global competitors have little option in pursuing accreditation as part of their marketing strategy or brand positioning. Furthermore accreditations frequently serve as elements of the building blocks of rankings systems which rightly or wrongly are even more carefully monitored by the demand side of the market. Accreditations agencies, however, would prefer their activities to be closely linked to bona fide quality improvement in business schools. It is not unreasonable to assume that as you approach the bottom of the pyramid of the global business school industry in which literary thousands of schools participate, with only a few hundred recognised in some accreditation framework, the benefits to be gained from searching for accreditation as a vehicle to quality improvement, are dominated by issues relating to quality rather than mere brand development. Here African schools present an interesting case.

3 Business School Indicators of Quality Between the different accreditation agencies their exist certain commonly agreed on indicators of school quality, as well as unique indicators favoured by the individual agencies. Taken together, these indicators cover the full spectrum of business school activities and hence, trying to achieve the Triple Crown achievement represents more than a marketing exercise, but in fact is a comprehensive quest for total quality control. Common indicators All accreditation agencies will set quality criteria for the dimensions of Governance, strategy, mission and vision School autonomy Programme quality, delivery, outcomes and assessment Student selection, progression, placement and overall quality and Faculty size, composition, qualifications, development and intellectual contributions Between agencies the emphasis may differ, as well as the quality norms and interpretations. However, every school being accredited will have to demonstrate acceptable positioning in each of the abovementioned dimensions. Indicators strongly associated with EQUIS EQUIS strongly emphasises quality in Internationalisation as unifying theme Corporate connections as unifying theme Community involvement Sustainability and governance and Executive education if it is part of the school s activities Indicators strongly associated with the AACSB The AACSB puts strong emphasis on Quantitative ratios of sufficiency in some dimensions and Assurance of learning Indicators strongly associated with AMBA AMBA focuses on the MBA degree and stands out in its emphasis on Curricula and Programme modes, duration and credits Challenges for African Schools

4 Africa is made up of 61 countries with 26 official languages and 44 currencies. The total population of one billion is dispersed over 30 million square kilometres in national populations that range from 4000 to 133million inhabitants and GDP per capita figures ranging from $600 to $ In Sub Saharan Africa there are less than 10 business school that conform to the most minimal quality criteria that can be set for business schools, excluding the 19 government accredited schools in South Africa. The challenges facing African schools are manifold some are internal to the school, university or social context and others arise from a wider context. Internal legitimacy These factors relate, amongst others, to issues such as: The nature of business schools especially the need for a high level of autonomynot being well understood within educational systems or universities Little sensitivity for the fact that schools have to compete and hence have to demonstrate quick reaction times in the market University cultures frequently dominated by education and theology Antibusiness sentiment arising from a classical liberal university culture Antbusiness sentiment arising from the vague borders of business as a scientific endeavour Antibusiness sentiment springing forth from the socialist histories of many countries Antibusiness sentiment arising from the relative wealth of business school stakeholders Financial constraints to create a modern learning environment External constraints A scarcity of intellectual capital due to a braindrain and/or competition with the local government/business sector Environmental constraints like political instability, inaccessibility and the price elasticity of educational demand The inaccessibility of international journals for research in Africa Overcoming these challenges will not be easy and progress will probably be relatively slow and will depend on factors such as: Stepping up growth rates which will create a demand for a welltrained management cadre, but which, in truth, presents a catch 22 situation Real international fixed investment driving a highlevel manpower demand and an accompanying programme of assistance to achieve this Dedicated financial assistance Building international schools in partnership with African institutions or as free standing entities Developmental assistance as foreseen through BRIDGE, DAF or SAABS.

5 Reasons for not Pursuing Accreditation in Africa When one thinks of the future of international accreditation two aspects stand out. The first is that the quality profile of an accredited school will change relatively slowly following demands in the external environment and the corresponding incremental reaction of business schools see for example the current emphasis on sustainability. Hence the pool of accredited schools will slowly grow but not chaotically explode. African schools may decide not to pursue accreditation as we understand it today at all due to The large gap between the status quo and the ideal standards, catching up almost becoming an impossible dream African schools may decide to act on the local playing field rather than to become international bastions of business knowledge and acumen Some argue that there is a clash of values between Africa and the capitalist states of the world ubuntho versus the bottom line It is also possible that schools may decide to utilise scarce resources in pursuing rankings rather than academic accreditations.