Coveted EQUIS award for Business School
AUT Business School has been awarded the prestigious EQUIS accreditation, an endorsement of excellence held by an elite group of business schools around the world.
EQUIS is an international accreditation body that enables business schools to assess, improve and benchmark their work against their international counterparts.
Fewer than 200 of the world’s 15,000 business schools are EQUIS accredited.
EQUIS accreditation places particular importance on students’ learning environment, their ability to gain and apply managerial and entrepreneurial skills, their personal development and sense of global responsibility.
Praise for the Business School
During a rigorous application and interview process, AUT Business School was acknowledged for its strong partnerships and alliances outside the university. For example, the School’s Cooperative Education programme enables final-year Bachelor of Business students to undertake a full-time work placement, during which they put theory into practice and build their own industry connections. The programme is distinctive in New Zealand for its scale and design.
The Business School was also praised for its commitment to social impact, which sits at the core of its ethos and activity. As the School’s flagship programme, the Bachelor of Business takes a multidisciplinary approach in response to the changing nature of business and the future of work. Students are supported to think deeply and critically about ethical and sustainability issues and how to address them.
In announcing the award, the EQUIS peer review team said AUT Business School is “an agile university, is very market-driven and student focused on the one hand, and research-oriented and seeking impact on the other hand”.
Tackling the big issues
The panel further commended the School for “striving toward ‘real-world relevance and impact’ in all its activities, while observing the values of ‘integrity, respect and compassion’”. And it praised the School’s “adaptive and innovative capacity” and ability to “connect the tradition of the country with a timely topic most business schools are confronted with these days: equality, inclusion and respect”.
Professor Kate Kearins, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Business School, says the EQUIS award is well-deserved recognition for the School’s dedication to student learning and research that matters, and it provides a clear pathway for continuous improvement.
“The EQUIS accreditation reflects the tireless commitment and care that our AUT Business School colleagues give to student learning, as well as our valuable contributions to the academic community and world of practice. The EQUIS process has been valuable for guiding and prompting us through some developmental milestones and will continue to be integral to our work producing great graduates who are ready for the global workforce,” says Professor Kearins.
Dual accreditation
In addition to EQUIS, AUT Business School also holds the widely respected accreditation, AACSB.
Recognition by both EQUIS and AACSB places AUT Business School among the best business schools in the world.