The MSB team together with the EPAS peer reviewers (from left to right): the Dean, Professor Dr. Dirk Kiso; CALA Course Director, Professor Dr. Marcus Laumann; Timothy Phillips (corporate representative); Professor Konstantin Krotov (chair of the peer review team and Head of School, Graduate School of Management, St Petersburg University); Professor Agnes Hofmeister (Dean Emerita, Corvinus Business School, Corvinus University of Budapest); John Sterk (Dean, Amsterdam School of International Business, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences); EBP Course Director, Professor Dr. Ulrich Balz; and IMS Course Director, Professor Dr. Bert Kiel. (Photo: FH Münster / MSB)
Sweaty hands and nervous glances in anticipation of an oral examination - FH Münster students know this feeling only too well. Faculty members experience it less frequently. Least of all being reviewed by an international committee. But this was exactly the order of the day when it came to assessing three international degree programmes run by FH Münster's business department - Münster School of Business (MSB). MSB has just heard from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) that the programmes have been accredited. The higher education institution - one of only three in the whole of Germany - can now officially use the EPAS quality label.
The programmes, each of which received 3-year accreditation, are the international Bachelor programmes European Business Programme (EBP) and the German-Latin American degree in Business Administration (CALA), and the Master's programme in International Marketing and Sales (IMS). The EPAS seal stands for high quality standards of management courses that have an international perspective.
The Dean, Professor Dr. Dirk Kiso, is delighted: "This is a tremendous success for our School, a strategic goal that we have achieved and of which we are proud." The prestigious quality label is the result of years of investment in the international orientation of MSB, continued the Dean. "Besides the internal aspect of quality, we are convinced that the label will help us to be perceived more strongly as an international business school." Project Manager Thorsten Zdebel is also very pleased with the result: "The high requirements meant that the accreditation process was demanding and time-consuming, but the team effort - not least due to FH Münster's culture of quality - was eventually successful. With an elite label, peer reviewers cannot be expected to turn a blind eye."
"There is still room for improvement regarding research and further internationalisation," explained Professor Dr. Marcus Laumann, the CALA Course Director responsible for the Spanish part of the EBP programme. "These aspects do not come naturally to all universities of applied sciences. This accreditation gives the School and FH Münster a real opportunity to further enhance their profile." Professor Dr. Bert Kiel, IMS Course Director, has a future aspiration: "What we - members of the School, students, alumni and business representatives - all have in common is our enthusiasm for our work, and the shared desire to get even better. The sum of individual efforts then becomes something special. Keeping up the motivation is important!"
About the topic:
Germany now has three HEIs with EPAS-accredited programmes, one being FH Münster. Programme accreditation is awarded by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), which is based in Brussels. There are currently 115 EPAS-accredited programmes on offer at 83 schools across 35 countries (as of 2020).