06.25.08 by Bärbel Schwertfeger

Epas on the rise

Up until now, 21 programs from 18 institutions in 11 countries can adorn themselves with the Epas seal of approval, with eight MBA programs included in this count. Epas stands for EFMD Programme Accreditation System and applies for all business and management programs of study.

A further 26 programs from ten schools have overcome the first hurdle of eligibility – the acceptance to begin with the accreditation process. The EFMD plans to have a total of almost 69 programs in the Epas system (accredited and approved for accreditation) by the fall.

According to information from Epas Co-Director Ulrich Hommel, there are also currently more processes running in Germany. Epas did not release the names. The first and up until now only German program with the Epas seal of approval is the "MBA in Business Administration" at the University of Augsburg.

The goal of Epas is the presence of accredited programs in all of the national European markets by the end of 2009. Starting in October, Epas additionally wants to focus on its marketing in non-European countries. A non-European program has already been accredited, one is eligible.

Epas was established for schools that namely have good individual programs but do not aim for the Equis accreditation or do not meet its requirements. Equis (European Quality Improvement System) always examines the entire business school – which does correspond to the economic sciences faculty in Germany.

www.efmd.org