Lingnan Triple Crowned with AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB Accreditation

Written by:范慧君

In the challenging year of 2020, Lingnan has successfully secured Triple Crown Accreditations of AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB, thanks to keen supports from the University and School leadership, faculty, staff, students, alumni and corporate representatives. It enables Lingnan to join the highly exclusive group of world-class business schools. Committed to developing with international high standards in the past years, Lingnan has been making great achievements in program development, student cultivation, faculty team building, research development, international collaboration, and social service, and has earned wide recognition from peers from all over the world. The achievement of securing the three international accreditations once again will further consolidate Lingnan’s international standing of a first-class global school, and lay a solid foundation to conduct high level international collaboration in the future.

 

AMBA

In response to the crisis of Covid-19 Pandemic, peer review processes of the three international accreditations were delivered via virtual visits. During the AMBA Accreditation Peer Review in June, 2020, Peer Review Team had in-depth communication with the School’s leadership and the MBA/EMBA Program Teams, and highly recognized Lingnan’s achievements in the following aspects:

  • The international prestige and reputation reflected by the high caliber of its partnerships and its standing in international rankings, and impressive progress in research, in terms of quality of publications, coverage of key disciplines, and publications also in Chinese language journals.
  • The dynamic leadership of the Dean and his team and their commitment to the MBA/EMBA programs.
  • The successful first steps for a more in-depth alumni engagement.
  • Lingnan’s position in the top 2% of Business Schools globally.

The Association of MBAs (AMBA) is a London-based international organization that accredits postgraduate business programs at business schools worldwide. The Association is one of the three main global accreditation bodies in business and styles itself "the world's impartial authority on postgraduate management education". The Association of MBAs accredits Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) and Masters in Business and Management (MBM) degrees.

 

EQUIS

In September, 2020, the School met with EQUIS Peer Review Panel Team. As an authoritative accreditation system for business schools, EQUIS conducted an inclusive evaluation on the School’s governance and strategy, programs, students, faculty, research, internationalization, connections with practice, etc. The Panel Team commended Lingnan from the following aspects:

  • Lingnan College is a good School which has positioned itself successfully as one of the top Business Schools in China and can be considered the best School in the Southern region of the country.
  • The strengths of the School are the excellent student body, a strong faculty and good international standing.
  • It is evident that the curricula of different programs are updated regularly to the latest trends in practice.
  • It is a special characteristic of the School to have industrial mentor program, and have executives from prominent institutions to serve as lecturers or guests in several courses.
  • The principles of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS) are well integrated both in teaching and in research.

The European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) is a school accreditation system. It specializes in higher education institutions of management and business administration, run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). EQUIS accreditation ensures a rigorous quality control, benchmarking business schools against international standards in terms of governance, programs, students, faculty, research, internationalisation, ethics, responsibility and sustainability, as well as engagement with the world of practice.

 

AACSB

The last month of 2020 began with the AACSB Peer Review. The Panel Team went through Lingnan’s development in the past five years, and had deep communication with representatives of Board of Trustees members, International Advisory members, faculty, students, staff, alumni and corporate connections. The Panel Team thought highly of the progress made in the past years by Lingnan:

  • The College shows a very strong ability to connect with its stakeholders in such a way that they share and contribute to the shared, ambitious goal.
  • Lingnan College has a strong alumni network with more than 40,000 alumni.
  • As far as the PRT could judge, alumni, students, and faculty enjoy and appreciate good services provided by the College’s high quality professional staff.
  • Lingnan College attracts outstanding students in China and the quality of student cohorts is excellent. For the UG programs, the admission process is very competitive, and the College can select the best students in the southern part of China; for the MBA program, the acceptance rate is normally around 10%.

AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is a global, nonprofit membership organization of educational institutions, businesses, and other entities devoted to the advancement of management education. Synonymous with the highest standards of excellence since 1916, AACSB provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and learning and development services to over 1,700 member organizations and more than 840 accredited business schools worldwide.