Letter from the Dean & Fact Sheet concerning MGSM and EQUIS
4 June 2010
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
I write to inform you about the outcome of a recent review of MGSM by EFMD’s EQUIS, a European association and accrediting body for business schools. The Peer Review Team (PRT), comprised of Deans from business schools outside of Australia, recommended to the EQUIS Awarding Body that MGSM be re-accredited.
The PRT report was very positive about the quality and dedication of MGSM’s faculty and staff, praised the quality of our students and degree programs, was complimentary about our infrastructure, facilities and services, and acknowledged our standing as a leading management school in Australia and worldwide. The PRT also noted that our research contributions met expectations.
The PRT also identified concerns, which included significant turnover of Deans, the contemplated but ultimately rejected merger of MGSM with the Faculty of Business and Economics, and the downsizing of MGSM due to changed market conditions for its executive education and graduate award programs.
The PRT acknowledged that the University was strongly committed to maintaining the School’s autonomy, the School was financially sound and a new Dean had been recruited to provide leadership.
The EQUIS Awarding Body acknowledged the school’s strengths and challenges, as well as the steps taken to improve it academic and financial prospects, but rejected the PRT’s recommendation to accredit MGSM. A key issue affecting the decision was that EQUIS has a minimum institutional size requirement, as measured by the number of “core faculty,” to be eligible for accreditation. MGSM operates below that number and, therefore, is not eligible for consideration.
MGSM is a small, focused, high quality graduate school of management. Our outstanding core faculty is augmented by exceptional visiting faculty from the management community and other quality academic institutions. Given MGSM’s strong focus on contributions to practice, we have developed an outstanding faculty who fit well with our mission of serving experienced professionals in our award and executive programs. While additional hiring plans are in process, MGSM will continue to operate with staffing levels consistent with our mission and responsible growth.
We understand and accept EQUIS’s focus on larger institutions, as opposed to a small, highly focused graduate school such as MGSM. We are dedicated to maintaining our standing to be among the best, although certainly not the biggest, graduate schools of management. We greatly appreciate and look forward to your continued support of the School, which enables us to deliver high quality learning outcomes for our students and clients.
Please click here to view the EQUIS Fact sheet.
Robert E. Widing, Ph.D
Dean
