Global Accreditation Systems in Management Education:A Critical Analysis

The field of management education is undergoing unprecedented changes. It faces a number of strategic challenges such as growth in the number of institutions offering business education; internationalization of the market and the players; new methods of delivery; increased emphasis on managerial competency; and increased pressure for external validation and accreditation. The liberalization of trade in higher education necessitates strong quality assurance arrangements both from the requirement to safeguard stakeholder rights and from the need to promote broader academic value. While the subject of accountability, quality assurance and accreditation in management education have received significant attention, the debate is still unsettled. The paper traces the growth and development of quality assurance and accreditation in management education. It draws attention to several unanswered and unaddressed aspects of quality assurance and accreditation, which are crucial for the primary stakeholders of management education. It reviews some of the globally recognized accreditation systems in management education and proposes a set of guidelines for accrediting agencies to assess their relevance and applicability in a wider global context.