AMBA accreditation is a quality assurance and quality enhancement process developed since the 1980s by the London-based Association of MBAs (AMBA). A total of 280 business schools worldwide are AMBA accredited currently.
AMBA accreditation is focused on the business school and the portfolio of MBA programmes. Around 50% of the AMBA MBA accreditation criteria are dedicated to the institution and 50% of the criteria focus on the programme portfolio. The key tenet in AMBA accreditation is that the MBA is a post-experience postgraduate programme, which requires students to have at least 3 years of appropriate and relevant post-bachelor work experience before the start of their MBA studies.
- SCOPE
AMBA accreditation is reserved for business schools with outstanding MBA programmes. To gain AMBA’s MBA accreditation, a school has to submit for review all MBA programmes and variants for which it awards its degree/diploma. Additionally, schools can submit their pre-experience generalist masters programmes (MSc Management, Masters in International Management, Masters in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, etc.) for AMBA’s optional MBM accreditation. AMBA also awards DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) accreditation to 10 business schools in the world.
- AMBA MBA ACCREDITATION CRITERIA
The AMBA MBA accreditation criteria are grouped into ten Key Principles, which contain more than 100 qualitative criteria but only a handful of quantitative criteria. The key quantitative criteria are listed below:
- All MBA students should have at least 3 years of appropriate and relevant post-bachelor work experience at the start of their MBA programme and the student body as a whole should average at least five years of work experience.
- Each MBA programme should contain at least 500 contact hours, i.e. 500 hours of 60 minutes of faculty/staff-mediated interaction. (AMBA does not approve of “Mini-MBAs” shorter than 500 contact hours. Such programmes belong to Executive Education and should be labelled accordingly).
- The minimum duration of a full-time MBA is one year and the minimum duration of a part-time MBA that can be accepted for AMBA accreditation is 18 months.
- At least half of the full-time faculty should have a doctoral degree (PhD or DBA).
- The annual intake of each MBA programme should be at least 20 students per class.
In order to ensure clarity and transparency in the marketplace, all programmes awarded by the Institution bearing the designation MBA must be submitted for accreditation.
- AMBA MBM ACCREDITATION CRITERIA
The MBM (Masters in Business and Management) is as a generic category of generalist pre-experience postgraduate programmes. The MBM accreditation criteria therefore differ from the MBA criteria in three major ways:
- An MBM programme should have at least 300 contact hours (compared with 500 for the MBA).
- The School does not have to offer career placement services and career development to MBM students (while it is a mandatory requirement for the MBA). However, most schools nowadays have career centres that offer career support to both MBA and MBM students.
- The School can choose which MBM programmes it can submit for AMBA’s MBM accreditation (whereas the school has no choice and has to submit all MBA programmes for MBA accreditation).
- AMBA DBA ACCREDITATION CRITERIA
The DBA is a doctoral-level, research-based qualification, designed to make a contribution to the enhancement of trans-disciplinary professional practice in management disciplines, in addition to a contribution to knowledge via the development and application of theoretical frameworks, methods, and techniques. DBAs are normally part-time programmes for working executives. To qualify for AMBA accreditation, the minimum duration of the programme should be at least four years in part-time mode (and, by exception, 3 years in full-time mode).
- INITIAL AMBA ACCREDITATION PROCESS
The initial AMBA accreditation is a 3-stage process:
- Stage 1: Document submission and desktop review by an AMBA accreditation director.
- Stage 2: Document submission and desktop review by the International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB) of AMBA.
- Stage 3: Physical pre-assessment visit, followed by a 2-day official panel visit. The accreditation panel is a peer-review team normally composed of four assessors (Deans and Programme Directors, with at least one assessor who has detailed knowledge of the country and speaks the local language).
An initial accreditation normally ends with a 3-year accreditation.
Note: A more detailed description of the processes in each stage is included in 12. ANNEX A
- AMBA RE-ACCREDITATION PROCESS
To maintain their AMBA accreditation, schools have to go through re-accreditation every three or five years (depending on the outcome achieved in the previous accreditation visit). This is done in the same format as the initial accreditation visit, with a panel of 4 assessors.
- AMBA PANEL FEEDBACK AND OFFICIAL ACCREDITATION DECISIONS
AMBA panels give preliminary feedback to schools upon completion of the accreditation/reaccreditation visit. The feedback includes the panel’s recommendation for accreditation and the period of accreditation. However, the feedback delivered on the last day of the visit is a preliminary recommendation for accreditation and has to be reviewed and endorsed by AMBA’s International Accreditation Advisory Board to become official, which is done within 3 months of the completion of the panel visit.
- AMBA’s BGA MEMBERSHIP AND ACCREDITATION
In 2019, AMBA launched a new membership and accreditation system under the brand Business Graduates Association (BGA), which was the original name of AMBA between 1967 and 1987. With the BGA (re)launch, the full name of the organisation was changed to AMBA & BGA (Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association). Prior to the launch of BGA, AMBA did not have a membership dimension for schools: an institution had to achieve AMBA accreditation to be part of the AMBA network. Now BGA offers a membership dimension where schools can sign up to become BGA members and then proceed to BGA accreditation or stay at membership-only level.
- INDIVIDUAL STUDENT/GRADUATE MEMBERSHIP
AMBA & BGA was solely a network of MBA students and alumni when it was founded in 1967 and this individual membership remains a key distinctive feature of the organisation. At present, all students and alumni of an accredited school can join as AMBA members free of charge and benefit from a range of free services (career centre, jobs portal, subscription to AMBA’s award-winning monthly magazine Ambition, access to thought leadership, surveys and other resources).
- 300 AMBA SCHOOLS LIMIT
The Board of Trustees of AMBA & BGA has mandated that the number of AMBA-accredited schools be limited to 300. The current number of AMBA accredited institutions is 280 and several dozen institutions are in the accreditation process (of which 20 will qualify for the last remaining places). There are no limits to BGA membership and no limits to BGA accreditation.
12. ANNEX A
AMBA ACCREDITATION PROCESS
Stage 1
- Institution expresses interest in accreditation
- Institution sends formal ‘Letter of Intent’ agreeing to assessment terms & conditions
- Institution pays non-refundable Registration fee (valid for one year)
- Institution completes Application Form
- Institution is invited to be a formal candidate for accreditation
Stage 2
- Institution pays non-refundable Pre-Assessment fee (valid for three years)
- Institution completes Self-Assessment Form
- Application sent to IAAB Eligibility Committee
- Institution is invited to proceed to the next stage in the AMBA Accreditation Process
Stage 3
- Pre-assessment visit takes place
- School completes Self-Audit Report
- Preparation of Assessment Visit
- Institution pays Assessment fee
- Official Assessment Visit
- Initial feedback/recommendation given to institution
- Institution pays Assessor Expenses invoice
- Report compiled by Assessment Team
- Factual checking of Report by School
- Report considered by IAAB for endorsement
- Final Accreditation decision: 3 or 5 years for a new schools; deferral of one year; or denial of accreditation. For re-accreditation: 1, 2, 3, or 5 years may be awarded, or removal of accreditation.
