Accreditation

I. Maintenance Accreditation 2014

1.Graduate School of International Management, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 hereby certifies that Graduate School of International Management, Aoyama Gakuin University has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising. Accreditation commences
  April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
• Good Practices -Experiential learning projects at the MBA Programs-
  Generally, the School observes good management education practices in all areas. However most commendable are practices in maintaining good faculty profile, support to students and faculty educational and research activities as well as curricula management.

2.Graduate School International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, Japan

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising. Accreditation commences
  April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
• Good Practices -Japan and Asia Emphasis in the MBA Programs-
  IBS: Customizable design of courses with signature experience, seminars and other innovative programs in pursuance of a world-class curriculum that combines the best practices in business education from around the world with a distinctive perspective on Japan, Asia and global economies.
  FS: Nurturing professionals highly specialized in finance who quantitatively and conceptually understand issues concerning finance.

3.Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Japan

• Peer Review Results
  Even though not many issues have been found in almost all the aspects of the maintenance accreditation, Kobe University Graduate School of Business Administration has a space to enhance the best Japanese business practices through its curriculum. For example, the School can provide an MBA education that imparts an understanding of each graduate’s responsibility not only to the nation but to the world. The concept of globalization should be more emphasized in its business education system.
  ABEST21 certifies that Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising.
  Accreditation commences April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
• Good Practice -Research-based MBA Education-
  The school has been very successful in the Japanese management education. However, Japanese business will face extreme demographic changes over the next 20 years. Has the School adopted appropriate practices to cope with these changes? How will it deal with the globalization of the business environment? To respond to these challenges, the School is highly expected to develop its management innovations through the cooperation with professionally qualified faculty members who have a substantial experience in the global business.

4.MBA Program in International Business, Graduate School of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that MBA Program in International Business, Graduate School of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba, has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising. Accreditation commences April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
• Good Practices -Global and Interdisciplinary Approach to the MBA Programs-
  MBA-IB is an example of good practices from the viewpoint of “Management of Curricula”, “Student Admission”, “Infrastructure Support”. For example, the MBA-IB’s curriculum has a balance of research-oriented and practical-oriented courses and is well organized. It consists of Basic Courses, Core Courses, Elective Courses, Seminars, and Business Project. As to the infrastructure, the internet is used in the graduate research lab to conduct distant education in cooperation with business schools overseas via Skype, or to broadcast classes to students working overseas. Registered persons are free to enter the student’ lounge 24 hours a day and the Tokyo Campus Otsuka Library can be accessed everyday outside of regular hours between 9am and 11pm with a student ID card.

II. Initial Accreditation 2014

1. School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, China

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that MBA Program, School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, China, has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising. Accreditation commences April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
  • The School’s Self-Evaluation Report is adequately written in accordance with the ABEST21 requirements. The information and data are well provided and clearly stated.
  • The School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, realizes the advantages and disadvantages of its MBA program. In the aspects of mission statement, education programs, students, faculty, supporting staff and infrastructure, the School functions well. Though there are some weaknesses in some fields, overall, the School is qualified to achieve its mission.
  • NEU’s SER is up to the standards of ABEST21, and qualifies for the ABEST21 accreditation.
  • On-site interview confirmed that the content of SER is accurate and up-to-date.
• Good Practices -Innovation and Management Education-
  Generally, the School observes good management education practices in all areas. However most commendable are practices in maintaining good faculty profile, support to students and faculty educational and research activities as well as curricula management.
  • “The School gets strong support from the University. The University attaches great importance to the development of MBA education in teaching teams, curriculum, teaching methods, enrollment, organization and facilities. The support comes both from financial aids and favorable policies”. It is very important that the University offers strong support.
  • “The School has continually improved its mission to face the ever-changing economic environment”. The mission should be revised according to the changing situation, and it is advisable to revise it every couple of years, not on a too short- or too long-term basis.
  • As stated by the School, “The School emphasizes construction of new courses and normalizes application and management of new courses. The School has set a special regulation, Management Regulation of New Courses in the MBA Center of NEU, which provides clear regulations on the scope of new courses, qualifications of teachers and application processes. In order to encourage teachers to take new courses, the School gives teachers with new courses some financial support and awards to guarantee education quality”. The demands of new courses should be taken into consideration and the quality control is also important.
  • The space limit is the common problem of some business schools. The School mentions that “NEU has started construction on the new site and the first-stage construction will be put into use in September 2014”. Besides internal resources, the new space might be a good solution.
  • The School provides high quality training for its students by improving professional knowledge and skills, increasing the sense of business ethic, exploiting and developing creativity, critical thinking and innovative spirit, nurturing their international vision, preparing the students for the role as professional businessmen and corporate leaders.
  • As a relatively young business school, and with strong support from the Ministry of Education of China, NEU is in a good position to pursue innovations in management education.

2.Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that Master of Management Program, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Padjajaran, Indonesia has generally met ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as good. The School’s KAIZEN plans are good and quality maintenance and prospects for the improvement of education and research are promising. Accreditation commences April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
• Good Practices-Collaborative-based Learning at the MBA Programs-
  Collaborative based learning (CBL) which is a specific feature of MM FEB UNPAD is a good practice in the management education. CBL covers collaboration among stakeholders of MM UNPAD in the areas of teaching, research, curriculum development, exploring company-based issues, and thesis colloquium.

3.Graduate School of Management, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that MBA Program, Graduate School of Management, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia has generally met ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as good. The School’s KAIZEN plans are good and quality maintenance and prospects for the improvement of education and research are promising. Accreditation commences April 1, 2014 for a five-year period. The Self-Evaluation Report covers most of the key areas required for the accreditation. Based on the report,
  • The School’s mission statement is in line with the University’s mission statement. This mission statement is constantly being reviewed by various stakeholders.
  • The MBA program’s educational goals are sound and designed systematically to cater for its mission statement, with special focus on the Islamic contexts.
  • Students’ profile, admission, support and incentives are in accordance with the University’s policy.
  • Recruitment of the full-time faculty members needs to be taken seriously by the School to support its overall mission. Qualified full-time international faculty staff from different cultures and business environments should also be recruited.
  • A more organized and stable supporting staff is essential for the development and smooth running of the program. The School should continuously improve both its educational and infrastructure support.
• Good Practices-The MBA Programs integrated with the Islamic Perspectives-
  • Niche areas and strong emphasis on ethical values and Islamic principles recognized globally.
  • Diversity of student body with a rich cultural diversity.
  • Good feedback system for continuous improvements involving various bodies such as students, faculty members, alumni, and both local and international advisory board.
  • Financially independent from the University.
  • Sound strategic plan.

4.Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

• Peer Review Results
  ABEST21 certifies that MBA Program, Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia has met all or most ABEST21 Business Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and research in its Management Degree Programs are assessed as excellent. The School’s KAIZEN plans are excellent, and quality maintenance and improvement of education and research are very promising. Accreditation commences
  April 1, 2014 for a five-year period.
  The overall findings of the PRT during the site visit are summarized below:
  • The largest number of students is enrolled in the general MBA. It would be a challenge for GSB to develop their niche MBA as envisioned by the VC.
  • GSB is still lacking international students. One of the ways to globalize is by bringing in international students.
  • The new MBA curriculum requires students to complete 48 credits for graduation. The reported curriculum only required students to complete 44 credits for graduation.
  • GSB only accepts a maximum of 9 credits to be transferred. Credit transfers are only permissible from institutions that have signed MOA with USM and not others.
  • Full-time students are allowed to take up a maximum of 6 courses. This may be a bit too much considering that each course is 3 credits with 120 SLT (self-learning time), even if this is the university’s policy. Generally full-time students take about 3-4 courses per semester.
  • The grading criteria probably needs a review to adjust to the common practice of the local and international postgraduate schools, where a minimum B is required to pass a core course and a B grade average CGPA is required to graduate. Currently GSB students can graduate with a CGPA of 2.5, thus a question was raised to make it 3.0 CGPA as a graduation requirement. The management of the GSB is willing to respond to this suggestion, but this needs University senate endorsement.
  • The admission requirement of CGPA of 2.75 for both full-time and part-time programs needs to be reconsidered, since quality input ensures quality output.
• Good Practices -Sustainable Learning and Interdisciplinary Teaching-
  There have been many issues pertaining to the improvements in SER report submitted by the Graduate School of Business of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and many were also observed by the PRT members. These were captured in previous pages of this report. Regardless of the above issues there seem to be good practices as well. One of the good practices the PRT noted is that the Graduate School of Business assesses Faculty Members annually rather waiting for 5 years as requested by ABEST21 Standards.