From December 2 to 3, 2013, a panel of experts from the Association of MBAs (AMBA) re-accredited MBA/EMBA programs provided by the Economics and Management School (EMS). This panel consisted of Prof. Andrew Lock, former dean of the Business School, University of Leeds in the U.K., Prof. Martyn Jones, pro Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University London, Prof. Wang Zhongming, the AMBA’s International Advisor China and senior professor of humanities and social sciences, Zhejiang University, and Mr. George Iliev, the AMBA’s Accreditation Manager.

Prof. Andrew Lock, the head of the panel said that the AMBA attached great importance to the re-accreditation for WHU’s MBA/EMBA programs and sent its most senior team of experts. In October 2010, WHU’s MBA/EMBA programs was awarded the AMBA accreditation for the first time, becoming the fourth university in China’s mainland and the first in central China that won the membership of the AMBA accreditation, which laid a good foundation for the steady high-level development and further internationalization of the programs.

At 10 a.m. on December 2, Prof. Feng Youmei, WHU’s executive vice president met the AMBA’s accreditation panel. Wen Guanhua, Head of WHU’s Professional Degrees Department, Xie Danyang, Dean of the EMS, Xu Yeqin, Secretary of WHU’s Party Committee, and Li Yanping, Vice Dean of the EMS were also present at the meeting. Ms. Feng said that the university gave much attention and full support to the accreditation of MBA/EMBA programs. She introduced the university in respects of its operational principle, progress in teaching and discipline development, and projects of international exchanges and cooperation. In the subsequent exchange, staff members answered questions from the panel regarding the contribution made by the university to the society, new orientations relevant to the professional degree education, and the cooperation between the EMS’s MBA/EMA programs and disciplines in other schools, providing the panel with a holistic understanding about WHU’s development strategies, objectives and measures. The panel praised EMS’s practice of incorporating the study of humanities which was a strength and feature of WHU into the curriculum system for EMBA education to improve the humanistic quality and general managerial competence of senior managers in enterprises.

On the morning of December 3, the panel heard the Self-Review Report for the AMBA Re-accreditation given by the EMS. The report session was attended by Li Fei, Vice President of WHU, Wen Guanhua, Shi Wei, Deputy Director of the Finance Department, and leaders of the EMS including Xie Danyang, Xu Yeqin, Zhu Jianping, Li Yanping, Zeng Guo’an, Pan Min, and Li Jilong. Li Fei said that Wuhan University stressed both the internal development and the internationalization, hoping to gain access to the world through international accreditation. Mr. Xie Danyang gave a comprehensive introduction to the new development of the EMS and its MBA/EMBA programs, new visions, missions, values and strategic moves of the EMS, and the progress in other aspects. At the session for questions and discussion, heads in different departments and sections made defense and discussion on specific issues put forward by the panel concerning resource allocation, course design, dissertation and assessment, and international exchanges.

During the two-day on-site review, the panel toured around the university inspecting teaching buildings, laboratories, libraries and other facilities, and held symposiums with MBA/EMBA course teachers, students, alumni and representatives of the employers, so as to conduct comprehensive and in-depth evaluation on aspects including teaching facilities, the quality of the faculty, routing management and student participation, objectives and results, and courses and assessments.

On the afternoon of December 3, the panel fed back its comments on the re-accreditation to Ms. Feng Youmei, Mr. Li Fei, and leaders at relevant departments of the school and the university. It fully affirmed the innovation and progress made by WHU’s MBA/EMBA programs within the three years after the first accreditation, believing that WHU’s MBA/EMBA programs reached the highest standard set out by the AMBA accreditation. It would submit the final accreditation report to the association’s International Accreditation Advisory Board soon and suggest the latter to grant the official accreditation. And meanwhile, the panel highly praised the EMS for its endeavor in building a leading business school in China with world-class standing, and offered constructive opinions and suggestions in this regard.

The international accreditation is an important platform for the EMS to become a world-class business school, and facilitates our teachers and students’ exchanges and dialogues with the international counterparts. Through the AMBA re-accreditation, we conducted systematic review on the school and the MBA/EMBA programs and testified those improved items. The re-accreditation is very important in helping us implement the strategies for MBA/EMBA programs, highlight features of the training, perfect the education quality assurance system, improve the quality of the faculty, practicing the idea of serving the employers and students, promote the competitiveness of our MBA/EMBA programs, and raise the brand value.