IMD’s continuing excellence in management education has been recognized with the renewal of the institution’s prestigious EQUIS accreditation from the Brussels-based European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).
President Jean-François Manzoni celebrated the reaccreditation by saying, “We are delighted to have retained our EQUIS accreditation with distinction. This seal of excellence recognizes our outstanding participants and alumni as well as the committed work of our faculty and staff in developing leaders who transform organizations and contribute to society.”
The EQUIS standards
The EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) standards require institutions to meet international best practice benchmarks in the areas of degree programs, executive learning, faculty, research, administration, internationalization, and sustainability.
During a two-day period from 31 May to 1 June, two business school experts visited IMD’s Lausanne campus and interviewed 32 campus stakeholders from senior leadership, faculty, and staff to assess the institution against the EQUIS standards. The reviewers concluded that IMD exceeded the standards and, in several standard areas, is an exemplar in business education.
The reviewers hailed IMD as one of the most internationally diverse business schools in the world. They further lauded the institute’s unparalleled engagement with executive leaders and praised the deep integration of sustainability-related learning into programs. A recent large-scale custom program intervention involving more than 14,000 executives was singled out as a pathbreaking model initiative.
“Beyond the (re)accreditation itself, we deeply value external reviews and the perspectives that they bring. Accreditation visits are always a great opportunity to take stock, reflect and set new aspirations for excellence,” said Manzoni. “We are grateful to this year’s EQUIS Peer Review Team for their time and advice, and we are energized by their encouragement to continue to pursue IMD’s distinctive journey as a hybrid organization combining the rigor of an academic institution and the closeness to practice of a professional services firm.”
EQUIS is a comprehensive quality review system for business and management schools, run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD Global) and its fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the EFMD, is to raise the standard of management education worldwide. It presently accredits 210 accredited business schools across 45 countries.
