BUSINESS SCHOOL ACCREDITATIONS: COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN OFFICIAL PROGRAMS IN THE SPANISH UNIVERSITY SYSTEM AND THE ACCREDITATION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF MBAS (AMBA)

Official teaching programmes within the Spanish university system must be expected to submit themselves to a cyclical review by the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA - Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación) or the assessment bodies registered in European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR). This evaluation’s objective is twofold: one is to check whether the program is being conducted in accordance with objectives set in the initial project; the other, to check the adequacy of results and determine whether these results contribute to training of the students and to the achievement of the intended competences.

In addition to this national accreditation, the schools of higher education may engage in other accreditation processes at both organizational and program structure levels, confirming the quality of its studies at international level. The most important accreditations within business administration area are those provided by the most influential international associations: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) - in Florida; the Association of MBA (AMBA) - in London; and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) - in Brussels.

As a result, it is hardly surprising that Spanish Business Schools may be subjected to different accreditation processes simultaneously.

The work aims at analyzing synergies and divergences between the accreditation process of official programs and the accreditation process of Master of Business Administration programs within the Spanish university system. Thereby, the paper is intended to offer a general vision of the main difficulties and ease faced by Business Schools when they want to certify compliance with the quality standards.