The United International Business Schools organization (UIBS) is the first and currently also the only higher education institution in Belgium with several programs accredited by the US-based Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). The following programs received specialized accreditation, as delivered also at the Antwerp and Brussels campuses:
- Associate in Business Studies (ABS)
- Bachelor in Business Studies (BBS)
- Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
- Master in Business Studies (MBS)
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Master of Arts in Fashion Management (MA)
- Master of Arts in Human Resource Management (MA)
- Master of Arts in Marketing Management (MA)
- Master of Science in Financial Management (MS)
- Master of Science in Operations Management (MS)
Our subsidiary company that organizes the various programs at the Antwerp and Brussels campuses was previously also certified by Qfor, a European quality label for training institutions, and shortly thereafter registered with the “Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen” department from the Flemish Ministry of Economic Affairs as an education provider in the “KMO-portefeuille” subsidy program.
Asked about future strategic plans, Thierry Kirschstein, Managing Director of the school, answers that “We are currently looking at certain other possible forms of recognition and accreditation of our school and programs, both within Europe as well as outside, and are confident that most of those can be achieved within a relatively short timeframe. The question we ask ourselves however is whether, as an international higher education institution, we should follow specific national educational models. This would strengthen the position of the local campus in the market, but would also diminish, to some extent, the international character of our school and programs because of compatibility issues between educational models; a transnational and European form of accreditation would thus be ideal.”
“We also plan to meet with several other ACBSP accredited schools in the BENELUX, among which the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and the Business School Netherlands (BSN), with whom some time ago we founded a new institutional accreditation organization, the Association for Transnational Higher Education Accreditation (ATHEA). This organization will accredit schools institutionally and not programs individually, based on the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), that are also followed by the national accreditation agencies.”
“The ACBSP accreditation standards focus mainly on continuous improvement, outcomes assessment, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and teaching excellence, and much less so on academic research as is the case with the somewhat better known AACSB by which the Vlerick Business School and Antwerp Management School are accredited in Belgium. We became a member of both AACSB and ACBSP already in 2010 and decided shortly after to start our accreditation process based on the ACBSP standards because of the better fit with our institution and programs.”
The ACBSP evaluation team commended our school for its strong leadership, faculty involvement, regular strategic planning and communication, student segmenting, student attraction and retention processes, systematic set of learning outcomes and our employment practices.
About ACBSP
ACBSP is a leading specialized accreditation body for business education. ACBSP’s mission is to promote continuous improvement and recognize teaching excellence in the accreditation of business education programs throughout the world. ACBSP accredits business, accounting, and business-related programs at the associate, baccalaureate, master, and doctorate degree levels. Recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in 2001 and again in 2011, ACBSP was the first to offer specialized business accreditation at all degree levels. ACBSP currently accredits business programs at more than 1200 campuses in 60 countries.
About UIBS
Dedicated to cross-cultural education with a global perspective, the United International Business Schools organization (UIBS) is an independent and accredited private higher education institution with campuses in Europe and Asia, including Antwerp and Brussels. UIBS offers flexible business and management studies at the Undergraduate/Bachelor/BBA, Graduate/Master/MBA and Postgraduate/Doctor/DBA level.
Links
- ACBSP
- Campus Antwerp
- Campus Brussels
