On March 8, School of Management, Lanzhou University (LUSM) held the Symposium on Business Graduates Association and the Silk-Road Entrepreneurship Education Network for Western China in order to promote interaction of schools of economics and management within universities in Gansu Province with international practice.

Professor WANG Zhongming, chief of AMBA Accreditation in China, director of the Silk-Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN) and senior professor in Zhejiang University, together with deans and directors of schools of economics and management from six universities in Gansu Province participated in the symposium. Delegates are from Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, Northwest Normal University, Northwest Minzu University and Gansu Agricultural University. Party Secretary YAO Chengfu of LUSM hosted the symposium. The symposium aims to provide an international cooperation platform from the aspects of discipline construction, course upgrading, case featuring and cooperative research by taking entrepreneurship education as a breakthrough and international accreditation as a grasp to achieve “new business through innovations”.

At the symposium, Prof. WANG Zhongming highly recognized the achievements of LUSM in the process of international accreditation and its contribution to promoting the internationalization of schools of economic and management in western China. Then, Professor WANG also analyzed the current international accreditation trend, contrasted the characteristics of AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS, three major international accreditations, and suggested that management education in northwestern China should take the construction of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) as an opportunity to accelerate development and improve the quality of regional economic management.

Subsequently, Professor WANG introduced in detail the Business Graduates Association (BGA) and its pilot program as well as the key links to all the participants. Professor WANG pointed out that BGA accreditation would organize quarterly workshops for interactive seminars of pilot institutions based on the cooperation base of the SREEN to help schools of economics and management to achieve all-round innovation and upgrade through multi channels including online and offline seminars and peer reviews.

During the symposium, delegates had a heated discussion on the BGA accreditation standards, scope of accreditation and requirements of the discipline construction. Dean ZHAO Yanlong form Lanzhou Jiaotong University, ZHANG Qinghui from Lanzhou University of Technology, HAO Jinlei and NAN Xingheng from Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics and other representatives of schools of economics and management also introduced their disciplines’ development and characteristics of their schools respectively.

Participants from different universities expressed their views that they would take BGA accreditation as an opportunity to keep pace with international academic frontiers, draw on the experience of management concepts and mechanisms of advanced international schools, and promote construction of teaching team and courses quality, so as to comprehensively enhance the strength and internationalization level of the schools of economic and management in Gansu.

After the symposium, delegates also visited LUSM’s international accreditation baseroom. Responsible persons of international accreditation and MBA program shared their experience with delegates in report writing, course construction and material preparation.

The successful holding of this symposium will create a platform for interactive discussion and collaborative development, concentrating on characteristics of schools of economic and management in Gansu, so as to promote the overall improvement of quality of business education through international accreditation and to help the economic and social development of western China.

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Founded in 1967, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) is the impartial authority on MBA education, together with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), which are known as three-crown authoritative accreditations for business schools. Accredited by AMBA in September 2014 and re-accredited in March 2018, LUSM is the 12th University in mainland China and the first university in Northwest China which earns the AMBA accreditation. AMBA responded positively to China's Belt and Road Initiative. In 2012, the Silk-Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN) was set up, and a series of solid business education cooperation and activities were launched and organized on the basis of the leading institutions accredited by AMBA. Business Graduates Association (BGA) is AMBA's latest accreditation for schools of economics and management. It is planned to take the lead in pilot projects in Guangdong, northwestern China and Zhejiang. In early April 2019, BGA accreditation for schools of economics and management will be officially launched in Gansu Province.