Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM) in collaboration with The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) held an Information Session Forum titled as "Establishing Continuous Improvement Strategies for Business Schools in Indonesia" for two days on Wednesday (9 /11) and Thursday (10/11) at the Auditorium Room, Learning Center Building, FEB UGM. Present at the event were two people from AACSB International, namely, Geoff Perry (Executive Vice President, Global Chief Membership Officer and Managing Director, Asia Pacific) and Liyan Chen (Senior Accreditation and Member Services Manager).

Currently, four universities in Indonesia have received accreditation from the international accreditation agency specifically for business schools, AACSB International. The four universities are the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of Gadjah Mada University, the School of Business and Management (SBM) of the Bandung Institute of Technology, the BINUS Business School, and the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of the University of Indonesia, which were just accredited last week. Thus, these four campuses in Indonesia have become part of the 862 business schools in the world that have been accredited by AACSB International spread across 56 countries.

The Information Session Forum discussed opportunities and challenges in the field of business education at the national and international levels and disseminated information about AACSB International accreditation. The event also invited 34 business schools in Indonesia and presented representatives from government elements, national accreditation agencies, AACSB International accreditation agencies, reputable business schools in Indonesia, and practitioners as speakers. FEB UGM as a nationally accredited business school and the first AACSB accredited in Indonesia, dedicates this forum to the development of business school learning quality in Indonesia. This joint and ongoing effort is believed to contribute strongly to the development of business leaders.

Business schools need to be active and open to understanding opportunities and challenges so that they could be adaptive, resilient, and collaborative. On the other hand, business schools also need to actively respond to the demands of organizational development on the basis of qualifications for business school accreditation at the national and international levels. From the Forum, participants who attended can discuss and exchange experiences in an effort to get accreditation so that more business schools in the country will get international accreditation recognition with the existence of this business school network.

In realizing the accreditation, business schools contribute to the development of the quality of education and teaching as well as increase the knowledge and competence of students. As a series of activities, this Information Session Forum organized national and international accreditation consultation forums for business schools that are in the process of developing learning quality assurance. In order to build networks, AACSB also visits business schools at three other universities in Yogyakarta.

Since getting accreditation in 2014, FEB UGM has reaccredited in 2019. Furthermore, for the second time FEB UGM will re-accredit from the AACSB International in 2024. This reaccreditation is a process that will continue to be assessed in order to make continuous improvements. On that occasion, Prof. Dr. Didi Achjari, S.E., M.Com., Akt., as the Dean of FEB UGM stated that one of the assessment criteria from AACSB International to obtain accreditation is that the tridharma activities of higher education from each business school must have a broad impact on society and the business world. According to him, these criteria are in line with the UGM jargon as a campus which is strongly rooted and soaring above.

Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy