Recently, School of Business and Management (SBM), Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) was formally informed by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) that the MBA program officially earned the accreditation from AMBA (The Association of MBAs).This means that SISU has been the 39th university to receive the AMBA accreditation among universities from mainland China.
Founded in 1967, AMBA is one of the three authoritative international accreditation systems for global business schools, along with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AASCB) and European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). AMBA is the only one of the three accreditation systems that certifies MBA and related programs. Only 2% of renowned business schools from over 70 countries hold the AMBA accreditation. Passing the AMBA accreditation is an important milestone in the SBM internationalization road. It not only marks the school’s entry into the ranks of international elite business schools, but also international recognition of the MBA training model and teaching quality of MBA program. It will also further promote the school’s internationalization. The process of running a school will strengthen the international competitiveness of the MBA program, further realize the internationalization strategy, strengthen the international competitiveness of the MBA program, improve the scientific management of the school, and promote a more comprehensive, balanced and rapid development of the school.
With the long-term care and strong support of Secretary Jiang Feng, President Li Yansong and relevant university leaders, the two leadership teams of SBM have led the faculty and staff of the school to actively promote the construction of double first-class and international accreditation. Under the leadership of the former dean, Professor Fan Zheng, SBM started preparations for AMBA accreditation in 2017. With the efforts of the Dean, Professor Pan Yu, the Executive Deputy Dean Professor Wang Fenghua is solely responsible for the promotion, and with the support of Secretary Xu Yong, the Deputy Dean Wu Yunqiao and the faculty of the whole school, SBM accepted the AMBA expert evaluation in September 2020 and finally passed the AMBA accreditation.
International accreditation is an important part of SBM to promote international education strategy. After more than 30 years of development and accumulation, SBM is actively building a high-level talent team in the new era, accelerating the construction of laboratories and research platforms, focusing on improving the development of frontier scientific research and interdisciplinary integration, optimizing the cultivation system. These all play very important role in meeting the international standards for running business schools and laid the foundation for successfully passing the international accreditation.
High-level faculty builds a strong school of talents. The school has built a faculty headed by outstanding scholars from top universities, such as Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, and the National University of Singapore. SBM is proud to receive funding from many national, provincial, and ministerial projects and talent plans. In addition, SBM research papers were published in leading academic journals (including Science, PNAS, UTD 24 and FT 50). The faculty members have chaired high-level research projects such as Major Projects under National Social Science Fund, key projects under National Natural Science Foundation, and consulting projects sponsored by Chinese Academy of Engineering. All these provide strong support for the rapid development of SBM.
Building Platforms to Foster Cutting-Edge Research. SBM has built two laboratories (the Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and the AI and Data Science Application Center) and 14 research institutes covering the Institute of Cross-Cultural Management, the Institute of Oriental Management, the Institute of Digital PR and Brand Management, the Institute of Data Sciences and Intelligent Decision Making, the Institute of Intelligent Operation and Supply Chain Management, the Institute of Intelligent Advertising and Communication Sciences, the Institute of Neural information System and User Behavior, the Institute of Neural information System and Digital Marketing, the Institute of Decision Neuroscience, the Institute of Strategy and Innovation, the Institute of Intelligent Response for Disaster and Crisis, the Institute of IMA Smart City, the Institute of Fintech and Behavioral Economics, and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Finance. All these provide broad research platforms for the faculty and students to pursue their diversified academic interests.
The development of disciplines increases the influence of SBM. Combining its own advantages and development reality, SBM builds a new model based on the new liberal arts, closely integrates the national strategic needs, keeps pace with the frontiers of international disciplines, seizes major development opportunities in artificial intelligence, brain science, data science, and computing science, and actively explores disciplines integration, focusing on the cross-application of new technologies and methods in business education, and to promote the optimization of the discipline and major structure, and promote the development of SBM in the direction of internationalization, cutting-edge and alignment. SBM is authorized to offer doctoral programs and postdoctoral programs under the tier-I discipline of Business Administration. In addition, its Bachelor’s program in Business Administration is recognized in the first batch of national first-class undergraduate programs. Overall, the discipline of Business Administration, as a tier-I discipline, has been elected as a key discipline of SISU， which also ranked in the top 25% in 2019 Ranking.
SBM will continue to realize internationalization, vigorously promote the AACSB accreditation, continuously optimize and innovate in accordance with the standards of top international business schools, improve the school’s research strength and the talent training quality, and resolutely strides forward to a domestically first-class and internationally renowned research-based business school.
