European University – Center for Management Studies

Though apparently not a non-traditional /DL option academic university, are there any insights /opinions and/or experience regarding this private Swiss-based university? Per their website, the BA, BS, BBA, MBA and DBA degrees in several areas of concentration are offered – all taught in English. EU does claim dual ACBSP and IACBE accreditation and graduate program admissions also require GMAT or GRE scores.

European University : European University: Business School - Bachelor / Undergraduate and Master / MBA programs degree

 

http://www.degreeinfo.com/accreditation-discussions-ra-detc-state-approval-unaccredited-schools/24724-european-university-accredited-2.html#post361462

 

Hi

Program accreditation through ACBSP. Geneva and Montreux campuses have accreditation from IACBE, which became CHEA-recognized very recently - last few days, I believe. Just answering the question - not recommending (or slagging) the school. Before enrolling - MAKE SURE its accreditation MEETS YOUR NEEDS (further study, job, etc.)

Johann

 

Yes … dual programmatic /specialized accreditation with ACBSP and IACBE; both are CHEA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation)-recognized as legitimate accreditation organizations.

 

Thanks Johann,

I wasn’t interested in enrolling with EU; I had never heard of this university before; nonetheless, they do have dual legitimate accreditation.

 

I am a bit puzzled by few schools that have ACBSP or IACBE accreditation but lack real accreditation in their home countries. Are there schools in the US that have ACBSP or IACBE accreditation but lack regional accreditation? Maybe ACBSP and IACBE accreditation supersede any underlying country accreditation.

 

Accreditation such as RA or NA as used in the USA is not used in many other countries. In the UK for example a university must be approved by the govt
DIUS : Recognised UK Degrees
If "listed" then that is generally regarded as being equivalent to USA regional accreditation (at least by a couple of large engineering companies I work with) and also when I transferred my UK credits to Excelsior College.

I suspect that other program accreditation is subversant to RA accreditation or its foreign equivalent.

 

Note that ACBSP and IACBE are both programmatic accreditors -- not institutional accreditors.

In other words, these agencies only grant accreditation on a program-by-program basis. So there is no guarantee that every degree offered by European University will be accredited by these agencies. In fact, some of their degrees are not.

For example, ACBSP currently accredits bachelor's and master's programs offered by the various European University campuses -- but ACBSP does not list the European University DBA as accredited.

IACBE's accreditation is even more limited; they don't list the DBA as accredited, and it appears that they don't cover some of the bachelor's or master's programs either.

So at present, it appears that a DBA from this school would lack any form of US-recognized accreditation. Some of the bachelor's and master's programs apparently lack IACBE accreditation, but would apparently still be covered by ACBSP.

 

European University, like many Swiss schools, has cantonal authorization. This is roughly equivalent to state authorization in US; it means that the school operates legally, but provides little or no assurance of quality.

Presumably this is why some Swiss schools seek US programmatic accreditation as a supplement. Most people would probably agree that this enhances their credibility.

In the US, it is unusual but not impossible for a state-authoized, non-RA school to get respected programmatic accreditation. I don't know of any business school examples, but there are examples in law and engineering. For example, UC Hastings is a standalone public law school in California; it lacks RA or NA, but holds ABA accreditation for its JD program. The National Test Pilot School, a specialized private school in California, lacks RA or NA, but has ABET accreditation for one of its MS engineering programs.

 

Perhaps there is similarity with EU’s specialized only accreditation and those non-ABA, but accredited by The State Bar of California – Committee of Bar Examiners law schools http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=tKsHnpccHas%3D&tabid=2192 and/or the Nashville School of Law approval with the the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners (?). Nonetheless, the UC Hasting example presented by CalDog is paramount regarding specialized accreditation (ABA) w/o RA – in this case, trumping regional accreditation. Seemingly regional accreditation is subservient to ABA programmatic accreditation when it comes to law schools; regional accreditation appears to play no active part in qualifying an individual to sit for the bar exam in almost all states.

 

Whoops! I just realized (too late) - CalDog has already covered this situation - better than I have. Sorry...

Hi

The program accreditors (ACBSP, AACSB etc) usually require either accreditation or degree-granting authority in the University's own country. For instance, they seem to be largely OK with Cantonal permission in Switzerland as "degree-granting authority," although it's nowhere near Swiss Federation approval. Cantonal OK is more like a license to operate - ok to grant degrees, no particular value ascribed to them.

Since the acceptable "degree-granting authority" for business schools in the US is usually accreditation, I doubt if you'll find anything similar - i.e. "institutional unaccreds" with business program accreditation, in America.

Johann

 

ACBSP explicitly requires RA for US schools. They state that "Institutions operating in the U.S. must be accredited by their regional body. Non-U.S. institutions must have equivalent accreditation or recognition as appropriate."

I didn't find any equivalent guidelines for AACSB or IACBE. But as far as I can tell, all US schools accredited by these agencies are also RA. In practice, it seems highly unlikely that AACSB in particular would seriously consider a US school that was not RA.

California Southern University, which is DETC accredited, is an "Educational Member" of IACBE, but this is not the same as being accredited by IACBE.

 

In that EU has ACBSP accreditation then ... ACBSP considers EU as having equivalent accreditation or recognition as appropriate.

 

At one point I believe they were/had it under the accreditation section and it showed they were in candidate status....I guess that did not fly?

 

In order to become an "Educational Member" of IACBE, a school must "Provide evidence that its parent institution has institutional accreditation from an appropriate nationally-recognized institutional accrediting organization". California Southern's DETC accreditation apparently fulfills this requirement, since California Southern has been accepted as an "Educational Member".

And once a school is accepted as an Educational Member, it should be eligible to apply for IACBE accreditation. There don't seem to be any additional institutional requirements needed to achieve "Candidate" status.

So in theory, it appears that California Southern -- or other DETC schools -- could be eligible for IACBE accreditation. I don't see any indication that California Southern has previously applied for such status. Their current IACBE membership record states that:

The words "not yet" imply that California Southern, as an educational member, could undergo IACBE accreditation reviews in the future.

 

This may be of interest. EU is reported to have achieved IQA Accreditation for their campuses in Spain, Switzerland and Germany, from the Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN).