(976)UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGESOF INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS.CASES OF RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN

摘要

Over the last decade, national authorities have set up both institutional and programme accreditationprocedures, and an accreditation is increasingly becoming the most dominant form of qualityassurance of higher education following national adaptations to the Bologna-declaration, and thepossible effects of an emerging accreditation market, (Stensaker & Harvey, 2006), accompanied by agrowing number of private accreditation schemes.The business schools reconsider their role in society, and the international accreditation process hereis a perceived vehicle for the introduction of institutional change that takes place not only in Europe,but also in the Commonwealth of Independent States.The purpose of this paper is to present some findings of independent research on the experience ofbusiness schools that already gained the international accreditation (case of Russia) or in the processof pursuing accreditations (case of Kazakhstan) mainly from the following accrediting bodies: AMBA,EQUIS, EPAS and AMBA. The business schools′ unknown experience in these countries as theleading countries (Russia is in CIS, and Kazakhstan in Central Asia, CIS) in these processes provideus with some interesting insight on the preferences in the order of pursuing these accreditations,advantages versus shortcomings and the changes needed to be implemented.The results of independent research among both the private and public local business schools showthat the main preferences in ranking these bodies by importance are AMBA which is a starting pointranked by business schools as the first place, and AACSB which is ranked as a final top point. Thistrend has the prevailing evidence in Russia, but rather different in Kazakhstan. The majority of localbusiness schools in Kazakhstan that apply for international accreditation are mainly the private localbusiness schools.Business schools both in Kazakhstan and Russia perceive international accreditation with theadvantages of improved reputation of school on domestic markets, a signalling strategy for thestudents that school is of high quality, the increased value of assets and brand and the competitionthat distinguish schools from their competitors. School with foreign ownership view the advantage ofthe international accreditation as a signalling strategy for the students and for the faculty members thatthe school is of high quality.The views of business schools on disadvantages of these accreditations point out that this process isvery time-consuming, it also requires human resources and considerable investment, some schoolsalso bring the opinion that accreditations requires very high standards of internationally recognizedacademic research which exceed the expectations of the school’s stakeholders. The changes neededin schools in order to gain international accreditation provide different reasons. This independentresearch brings more understanding how these processes are progressing in these two regions of CISwhich are the leading regions in the trends of higher education sector.