Faculty of Business receives triple accreditation

The Faculty of Business of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has become the only business school in the Greater China region to be triple accredited. The recent accreditation by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), together with those received from AACSB International in 2005 and EQUIS in 2007, reinforce the reputation of the Faculty, as well as CityU as an international institution.

Professor Wei Kwok-kee, Dean of the Faculty of Business, said that by securing the top three business school accreditations, the faculty had assumed a leading position in Asian business education. The triple accreditation represented a great honour for the Faculty and CityU, he added.

The accreditations are recognition of CityU’s outstanding teaching and research standards. They highlight the giant strides forward made by the Faculty in promoting internationalisation within its curriculum.

All MBA programmes offered at the Faculty of Business are accredited by AMBA. Among the other triple accredited institutions in the world are renowned business schools such as INSEAD, based in France and Singapore, and London Business School, UK.

“The EQUIS, AACSB International and AMBA accreditations mean our students, and the qualifications conferred by CityU, will be widely accepted by global institutions,” Professor Wei said. “Our accreditation status has also attracted a number of overseas schools to work with us and our students will benefit directly.”

Through joint initiatives with universities overseas, the faculty is able to expand its global network, combine its strengths with that of its partners and offer internationalised education to the students. The Faculty has, for example, formed a partnership with the University of California, Berkeley and recently became the first Hong Kong partner of their Asia Business Centre. The partnership will offer advanced management executive programmes to CityU students and encourage an exchange of students and academics between the two schools.

CityU has also formed alliances with other internationally renowned universities to co-organise programmes. Such partnerships have been forged with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, SDA Bocconi-School of Management in Milan, Italy, and University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management. CityU has also accepted invitations from the University of Toronto and Switzerland’s University of St Gallen to co-organise similar global EMBA programmes.

According to Professor Wei, the Faculty values the grooming of students’ global mindset. It aims to broaden their horizons and enhance their language abilities through exchange programmes, overseas internships, voluntary service or through scholars visiting from overseas partner institutions.

The Faculty’s population of exchange students has been increasing steadily, as has the number of collaborating universities. In order to bolster the students’ global outlook, the Faculty plans to increase the quota of exchange students to 400 over the next two to three years, giving half of the undergraduates the opportunity to undertake overseas exchange. The quota increased to 230 this year, from 180 last year.

AMBA was established in 1967. Their accreditation service is internationally recognised as the global standard for Masters of Business Administration programmes. One of its objectives is to ensure the quality of masters level business education. The association is working to establish a tripartite network to improve the lines of communication between members, employers and leading business schools. AMBA now accredits more than 140 business schools in more than 60 countries.