Asia-Pacific B-schools form association

Top B-Schools from 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including India, have joined hands to form an accrediting agency, Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools.

Formed in the lines of accrediting agencies such as the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business and the European Foundation of Management Development, AAPBS was conceptualised last October by the directors of top B-schools in the region.

Led by Sung Joo Park, dean of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of Management, the association has finalised its constitution.

Following the formation of AAPBS, a new association with the representatives from the three associations has also been formed. The Global Foundation for Management Education (GFME) will now be the highest accrediting agency in the world.

A 15-member board of directors of GFME was also formed in a meeting held at San Francisco on April 23.

While India is a member of the board China and Japan have been kept away from the board. South Korea is another Asian member in the board. India is represented by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

"Understanding the quality of management education in India, specially in top IIMs, GFME agreed to include India in the board," Bakul Dholakia, director of IIMA and a member of the board of GFME told Business Standard.

"This is an honour for the country as China and Japan have not been given berths in the board."

"In the very first meeting board has sanctioned and sponsored the first major project, 'Mapping the Global Management Education Landscape.' It will involve 63 countries and will be completed this year," he said.

"Similar projects will be undertaken to analyse and improve the quality of management education across the world. A synergy is being worked out among the prominent B-schools irrespective of their location," Dholakia added.

Elaborating the purpose of setting up AAPBS, Dholakia, said, "We understand that the future of management education is going to be an era of strategic alliances among leading B-schools and regional focus is also essential in this context. With the creation of AAPBS, there would now be a third force as far as accreditation of management institutes are concerned."

AAPBS was formed with 11 members as founding institutions. Later the a Council was formed to include more countries. Now the council has 20 members.