After the Russian President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, many countries including USA and UK have announced significant economic sanctions banning imports of goods and services from Russia. Leading MNCs like McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Shell have announced to pull out of Russia. Now B-schools and business education accreditation organizations too are taking action. Three top global accreditation bodies -- AACSB, EFMD, AMBA– have jointly decided to suspend membership and accreditation activities in Russia. This was announced in a joint statement by CEOs of three organizations on March 11.
The statement said, “AACSB, AMBA & BGA, and EFMD stand together in solidarity with the people of Ukraine…We are deeply concerned by the rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we are committed to supporting our Ukrainian Business Schools…” The Statement added further, “…we have collectively decided to suspend all membership and accreditation activities with Russian institutions until further notice.”
This announcement is a setback to B-schools in Russia. According to an article published on AACSB website in March 2019, the Russian Association of Business Education (RABE) boasts over 100 members and many of them are looking to expand outside the country and attract more international students. The article mentions that AACSB has nine member schools from Russia and AMBA has accredited programs at 13 Russian schools.
MBAUniverse.com couldn’t find any Russian B-school currently accredited by AACSB or EFMD. At the time of publishing this article, it is unclear if AMBA will revoke the Accreditations given to Russian B-schools.
Full text of Joint AACSB, EFMD, AMBA Statement on Russian Invasion of Ukraine
AACSB, AMBA & BGA, and EFMD stand together in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. As global leaders in business education, our organisations support and serve educators and leaders in over 150 countries and territories through our commitment to the values of peace, safety, freedom, diversity, and social responsibility.
We are deeply concerned by the rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we are committed to supporting our Ukrainian Business Schools and their staff, faculty, and students as they defend their way of life and sovereignty.
Our colleagues at Russian universities, who have for many years been collaborative and supportive participants in our global networks, find themselves in an unprecedented and extremely difficult position due to the decisions and actions of their government. Still, we have collectively decided to suspend all membership and accreditation activities with Russian institutions until further notice.
AACSB, AMBA & BGA, and EFMD stand firm with our communities in achieving peace, liberty, and global cooperation for the betterment of society.
Founded in 1916, AACSB is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools, and the largest business education network connecting students, educators, and businesses worldwide AACSB has offices located in Tampa, Florida, USA; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Singapore. AACSB Accreditation has been earned by only 5 percent of the world's schools offering business degrees at the bachelor level or higher. At present India has 18 AACSB Accredited B-schools.
Founded in 1972, EFMD is a global, non-profit, membership-driven organisation dedicated to management development. It is recognised globally as an accreditation body for business schools, business school programmes, and corporate universities. It has 972 Institutional Members across 90 Countries worldwide.
AMBA is Association of MBAs head-quartred in United Kingdom. Established in 1967, AMBA is an international Accreditation body which is working towards developing standards in global post graduate management education. There are only 2% B-schools across the world which are AMBA Accredited.
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