Accreditation & Ranking Impact with EFMD Global

As the world changes rapidly, higher education is under growing pressure to evolve. Accreditation bodies and ranking institutions are increasingly recognizing the need to prioritize societal impact, social responsibility, and the holistic skills students need to lead in a complex world. PRME launched a new webinar series to explore these changes, bringing together leaders from ranking and accreditation bodies, as well as PRME Signatory institutions to hear their firsthand experience.

Introduction

The fourth session in our Accreditation & Ranking Impact series brought together expert voices from EFMD and the PRME community to explore how accreditation is evolving to reflect societal impact, sustainability, and innovation in business education.

Speakers included:

Alfons Sauquet, Director of Quality Services & EQUIS, EFMD

Maha Mourad, Associate Professor, American University in Cairo

Meredith Storey, Senior Manager, PRME Secretariat

Redefining Excellence in Business Education in a Changing World

Speakers agreed that quality in business education must be dynamic, contextual, and values-driven. Alfons Sauquet emphasized that EFMD's EQUIS standards have shifted over time from focusing on academic rigor to now prioritizing ethics, responsibility, and sustainability in a school's mission and outcomes.

“We have internal management systems in schools that are not incentivizing this kind of impact approach, because our promotion systems are based on traditional academic peer review articles. So we have to play with that… Which is why we revised all the standards about research, because we wanted schools to learn that faculty who engage in impactful research are legitimate.” – Alfons Sauquet

At the American University in Cairo, Maha Mourad shared how they revisit and redefine quality annually to stay responsive to global changes. This process, guided by key performance indicators and stakeholder input, enables continuous improvement and strengthens alignment with both EFMD and PRME values.

The Elusive Definition and Measurement of Impact

Measuring societal impact remains a challenge, especially when traditional metrics prioritize research output over real-world contribution. Alfons pointed out that schools often do more than they report, and urged institutions to surface and share meaningful impact stories.

Maha explained how her school has mapped curriculum and activities to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using the Principles of PRME as a framework to guide their strategy. These connections provide a clearer narrative around impact that can be shared across accreditation and ranking platforms.

“The challenge now is that faculty are trying to find a way to teach. It’s not just about having texts or PowerPoints anymore—it’s about delivering something experiential that shapes values and thinking.” – Maha Mourad

This approach strongly echoes PRME’s emphasis on using the Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report as not only a reporting tool, but as a framework for institutional learning and accountability, showing strong synergy with EFMD’s evolving expectations.

Pedagogical Innovation Needs Faculty Empowerment and Systemic Support

Panelists agreed that embedding responsible management education across institutions requires cultural change and faculty support. Meredith Storey emphasized PRME’s role in creating space for experimentation and peer learning, helping institutions develop meaningful educational content that can later be captured in accreditation and rankings.

“We found that building truly unique learning environments requires a kind of quirky confidence that not all business professors feel equipped to tackle. At PRME, we’ve focused on surfacing and amplifying standout teaching experiences, knowing that great examples can inspire innovation across disciplines.” – Meredith Storey

Alfons and Maha both stressed that experiential, interdisciplinary learning and the thoughtful integration of technologies like AI must be backed by formal training and recognition structures. When paired with platforms like PRME and the EQUIS framework, these innovations can be scaled more effectively across global networks.

Final Thoughts: PRME and EFMD Working in Alignment for Impact

This session illustrated a strong alignment between PRME’s mission to embed sustainability in management education and EFMD’s evolving accreditation standards. Both frameworks prioritize ethics, responsibility, experiential learning, and continuous improvement—not just as values, but as core components of educational excellence.

By leveraging tools like PRME’s SIP reports and engaging in networks like EFMD, institutions can better document, share, and scale the work they are already doing to meet societal challenges. Accreditation, when shaped through this lens, becomes not just a credential, but a catalyst for meaningful transformation.