The European Quality Improvement System (or EQUIS) is a school accreditation system. It specializes in higher education institutions of management and business administration, run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). As of August 2010, EQUIS has accredited 127 business schools in 35 countries around the world.[1]
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EQUIS was created in 1998 under Gordon Shenton and the current director is Julio Urgel. In the past twelve years of existence the organization has accredited 130 institutions in 38 countries.[1]
The accreditation is awarded to business schools based on general quality. The process also takes into account the business school's level of internationalization, which is not a strict requirement for accreditation by the other two major international accreditation bodies: AACSB and AMBA. In this respect EQUIS accreditation is more demanding than AACSB—so far all fully accredited EQUIS business schools applying for AACSB accreditation have succeeded, which has not been the case the other way.
EQUIS accreditation can be granted conditionally for three years (with annual progress reports required) or unconditionally for five years.