Our accreditation offering

Accreditation is at the heart of AMBA & BGA’s commitment to developing standards in global business education and the continued development of tomorrow’s brightest business leaders.

We accredit MBA, DBA and MBM programmes at the top 2% of business schools in over 80 countries via AMBA's accreditation offering. Our rigorous assessment criteria ensure that only the highest calibre programmes which demonstrate the best standards in teaching, curriculum, and student interaction achieve AMBA accreditation.

BGA accreditation is a highly consultative and rigorous whole-school accreditation with a focus on positive impact, responsible management and lifelong learning. This gold-standard quality mark is awarded to institutions that can clearly demonstrate value creation and an increasing impact on their students and communities over a measurable period.

Our accreditations are international in scope and reach and we work with senior academics at top educational institutions around the world to continuously update our accreditation principles and maintain our unique and in-depth consultative approach.

Learn more about BGA validation

Validation is a less strenuous and cost-effective quality assurance designed to assess business schools against BGA’s Nine Charter Principles, which include graduate achievements and employability, good governance and continuous improvement measures. Validation is recommended for business schools who do not currently possess an international accreditation.

Key benefits include:

• Receive detailed consultative feedback on the school’s continuous improvement strategies, responsible management practices and much more.
• Strengthen the school’s internationalisation strategy and increase opportunities to work with other AMBA & BGA business schools
• Build a continuous improvement strategy
• Increase the school’s quality image and brand internationally to attract quality faculty and students
• Achieve a quality assurance mark in as little as six months at a cost-effective price
• Leverage your work in the validation process to achieve BGA accreditation

Why seek BGA accreditation?

BGA accreditation is a non-prescriptive and consultative whole school accreditation.

It is designed to focus on the elements of positive impact, responsible management and lifelong learning and encourages business schools to differentiate and focus on their key strategic objectives and the resulting impact on key stakeholders. The accreditation also emphasises alignment with three of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals, where schools must demonstrate commitment and achievements.

BGA accreditation is non-prescriptive, meaning that any business school regardless of size and focus can achieve accreditation, provided that they showcase positive impact and continuous improvement. The accreditation is highly consultative, where schools can expect to receive feedback on the school’s strategy, programme curriculum, alumni interactions, research and much more.

Key benefits:

• Inform prospective students and employers about the quality and impact of your institution and its respective programmes
• Enhance your business school's programme curriculum with international best practice and guidance from highly experienced mentors and assessors
• Improve your unique value proposition and differentiate yourself from the competition
• Demonstrate your achievements and impact on three of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Strengthen your internationalisation strategy and build close relationships with other leading business schools in the AMBA & BGA network
• Leverage your impact metrics to demonstrate your school’s value and apply them towards ranking agencies
• Gain access to key speaking slots at AMBA & BGA’s award-winning conferences (subject to availability)
• Use your accredited status to hire top-class faculty and attract quality students
• Receive a leading global accreditation at one third of the cost of other international accreditation bodies

AMBA & BGA Joint Accreditation

Joint accreditation is a highly consultative quality assurance that emphasises the importance of an institution’s overall impact and value creation for students, employers, and communities. It maintains the same level of rigour found in AMBA’s accreditation of post-graduate business programmes, while expanding the assessment to cover additional programmes and criteria. Achievement of joint accreditation allows schools to demonstrate the quality of their MBA, impact on stakeholders, and alignment to responsible management principles.

Key benefits include:

• Feedback on how the business school can improve its value proposition
• Suggestions on improvements against responsible management principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• An analysis of an additional flagship programme (undergraduate or postgraduate) offered by the school, offering suggestions on alignment with best practice and internationalisation standards
• Accreditation that covers the full business school, which is marketed and promoted via AMBA & BGA’s thought leadership channels.
• Free access to the BGA student and graduate membership and career services for all students and graduates of the business school
• Streamlined documents and reporting, resulting in less workload for two accreditations
• A 50% fee reduction for BGA accreditation