In November 2003 the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA) and Association of Sri Lankan Institute of Management (ASLIM) with the support of ESADE joined forces to develop Quality Improvement System for Management Education in South Asia. This initiative has been supported and financed by the EuropeAid Co-operation Office directorate within the framework of the Asia Link programme.

The aim of the project was to develop a quality improvement system for management education in South Asia that would help to enhance the quality of business schools in the region. The project focused on:

• transfer of European experience in quality improvements within the framework of EQUIS
• customisation of EQUIS methodology to regional needs
• training – both theoretical and practical -of experts in this newly customised methodology and its implementation
• testing and further fine-tuning of methodology during its practical implementation at four pilot business schools
• dissemination of project results

The project has now been successfully terminated. The quality criteria, developed on the basis of the European experience, were published and distributed among stakeholders of management education in the region and a dissemination conference gathered over a 120 participants from academia, business, government and media. 21 local auditors were trained and three of them participated in an actual peer review of a European Business School undergoing the EQUIS evaluation process. Three local business schools went through a full self assessment process, complete with a peer review, conducted by the newly trained local auditors under the guidance of EU experts.

Ten other Business Schools from the region expressed interest in participating in a quality improvement exercise and AMDISA members are quite vocal about the need to establish a regional accreditation system, based on quality criteria developed during the project. AMDISA’s status, reach and credibility would ensure the solidity, impartiality and good management of such a system.