The Graduate School of Business Administration (Keio Business School, hereafter KBS) had its European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation renewed on June 17, 2017, by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) based in Brussels, Belgium, an international body that assesses the quality of management education.
EFMD is an international membership organization aimed at information sharing and network formation with business practitioners and educational bodies engaged in management development, as well as the continuous quality improvement of management-related educational institutions. EQUIS assesses the overall quality of management education institutions as a part of the evaluation and accreditation system operated by EFMD. Centering on Europe, 172 schools in 42 countries have attained accreditation up to this point.
In 2011, KBS was the first business school in Japan to obtain EQUIS accreditation. Following its renewal in 2014, this is the second time the school has been reaccredited. The international accreditation of EQUIS can be obtained by passing the rigorous examinations that are undertaken by the specialist committee members appointed by EFMD on a wide range of issues, including the educational environment, the level of research, the abilities of faculty members, and the quality of the education system. Schools that receive accreditation are recognized internationally as having world-class quality education and research, and are able to recruit outstanding students from all over the world.
The reaccreditation of EQUIS this time, along with the accreditation that was first granted in 2000 by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), an American education quality assessment organization, shows that education at KBS, the quality of its research, and the activities of its faculty members, current students, and alumni have been widely acknowledged internationally.
To promote education and research exchange on a global-scale, KBS has joined international networks of business schools and proactively engages in collaborative research, faculty exchanges, double degrees, and credit exchange programs with partner institutions around the world.
KBS will take advantage of the opportunity presented by this reaccreditation to further enhance its education and research activities.