About the Association of MBAs
The Association of MBAs was founded in 1967 by eight UK graduates from Wharton, Harvard and Columbia. Realizing the fundamental strength of the qualification in terms of business and leadership, but seeing little knowledge of it in Europe, they decided to form a lobby and membership group. This started as the Business Graduates Association (BGA), and coincided with the setting up in the UK of London and Manchester Business Schools and the growth of management education in the rest of Europe at IESE and INSEAD. The BGA developed into the Association of MBAs which began to accredit the growing number of MBA programs as well as developing a strong membership brand.
The Association’s role is to be the advocate for the MBA. Currently, it comprises 161 accredited schools in 72 countries and has a network of over 9000 members living and working in 88 countries. Schools accredited by us include INSEAD, London Business School, IESE, HEC Paris, Instituto de Empresa, Rotterdam, University of Auckland Business School, Zhejiang University, IAE Universidad Austral and Wits Business School to name a few. The Association’s vision is to become the international authority on business and management education. Accreditation has been designed as an independent mark of excellence for postgraduate management education programmes offered at institutions throughout the world.
Accreditation ensures the global quality and relevance of the MBA. It provides: institutions with a distinct market advantage and international visibility for their programs, as well as the opportunity for external peer review; students with a list of postgraduate management education programmes of guaranteed quality; graduates with an assurance that their qualification will retain its value at a time when the market risks saturation; and employers with a recognized pool of talented graduates from which to recruit.
The Association’s accreditation service exists primarily to protect the consumer, ensuring that the accreditation assessment process maintains its independence and integrity as a kite mark for quality in the provision of management education. The assessment itself is completed by peer review, drawing on the vast experience of the Association’s faculty of assessors, primarily comprising deans and MBA directors from accredited institutions.
Accreditation Criteria
The criteria against which postgraduate management education programs are judged are constantly revised and updated by the Association’s International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB), to reflect the changing nature of management and business. The IAAB is comprised of senior academics from accredited schools around the world, as well as corporate expertise. The accreditation criteria are regarded as the international standard for MBA, DBA and other Masters programs in general management.
Raising the Standard
The Association is committed to promoting innovation and the continual development of postgraduate management education. The criteria encourage the development of new ideas and best practice to improve the global standard of postgraduate management education. Accreditation is programs specific. Although this requires assessment of some elements of the institution in order to guarantee a sound framework, programs evaluation allows an in-depth analysis of an institution’s provision, assessing its quality and providing relevant and valuable recommendations for the further development of programs through a comprehensive report. Accreditation is both judgemental and developmental – it acts as a key differentiator between quality programs in a crowded market, whilst encouraging innovation and continual development in all aspects of postgraduate management education.
Please find detailed information about the Association of MBAs on 
www.mbaworld.com.
