Estonia

New Accreditation Procedures

The Quality Assessment Council of Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency (EKKA) adopted new regulations on the institutional accreditation of Estonian institutions of higher education in April. The new procedures, which will begin this year, will replace the previous model of study program accreditation, with a greater emphasis on assessment of higher education institutions as a whole.

– Archimede
April 1, 2011

Russia

Business Students Head West

Interest in management education in Russia is increasing as the economy grows, and many Russian students are choosing to study for their MBAs outside the country. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, last year 2,019 Russian citizens took the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), an increase of 64 percent compared with 2006. But many of these would-be students either sent their scores to U.S. schools last year (53 percent) or schools in the United Kingdom and France. Only 2.4 percent of Russian examinees sent their score reports to Russian programs in 2010. There are 150 business schools in Russia offering an MBA, but apart from the 12 accredited or in the process of accreditation by the U.K.-based Association of MBAs, none has accreditation from prestigious international organizations such as U.S.-based AACSB or Equis, the accrediting arm of the European Foundation for Management Development. Most MBAs are taught in Russian and many schools are seen as lacking the drive and innovation of their western counterparts. To counter negative perceptions the Russian government is investing significant funding in its elite Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, established in 2006. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, is chair of the business school. There are currently 145 students on Skolkovo’s MBA and EMBA programs and numbers are rising. Other top Russian schools include IBS-Moscow, the Graduate School of International Business, Graduate School of Management St Petersburg University and the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Several western business schools – Duke in the United States, Vlerick Leuven Ghent, Stockholm School of Economics, Grenoble Graduate School of Business and Kingston University in the United Kingdom have opened campuses in Moscow and St Petersburg, often with local partners and government support. Other business schools are finding an alternative route into the Russian market. For example, Insead in Paris and Singapore and London Business School are delivering executive education to one of Russia’s biggest financial institutions, Sberban.

– Financial Times
June 6, 2011