By Christine Chou (周家慈)
Staff Writer
National Chengchi University’s (NCCU) College of Commerce was recognized by the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) on April 15, while NCCU continues to be the first and only university in Taiwan with EQUIS and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) international accreditations.
EQUIS is a school accreditation system under the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). It is regarded as one of the three major organizations- AACSB, EQUIS and Association of MBAs- to accredit higher education institutions of management and business administration.
EQUIS has accredited 164 schools from around the world.
According to College of Commerce, NCCU’s efforts in internationalization and research were the main reasons to be recognized by both AACSB and EQUIS.
Five EQUIS clerks visited NCCU in person and met with President Edward Chow (周行一) as well as NCCU's board members to learn more about the latest information and updates of the College of Commerce, after they finished their review session.
“The most challenging part in the process lies in culture shock,” said Senior Manager of College of Commerce Christine Be (畢文玲).
Be said that since in Europe, it is very common for students to stay in at least three or four countries before they finish schools, EQUIS tended to use the same criteria of EU to evaluate the situation in Taiwan.
“Even that is very different for NCCU,” Be said.
College of Commerce said that there was no surprises to be recognized as the College has made every effort to reach EQUIS accreditation standards, especially in internationalization and research.
With the awareness of the challenges from the top business schools across the world, the College has opened a series of courses with the concentration in Management in Asia to feature its position in the global education market.
The college has received the business and management accreditation from the Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) since 2006.
“Being accredited by EQUIS and AACSB indicates, we can say the College of Commerce is a top business college in Taiwan,” said College of Commerce Dean Tang Kwai (唐揆).
Tang said that the college would continue its efforts on accreditation, ranking, international alliances and other focus academic programs, including offering more English-taught courses, international academic exchanges, joint degree programs, body programs, student and professor exchange programs and study abroad programs in the future.
