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UCD College of Business has been awarded EQUIS re-accreditation for a further five years (2025–2030) by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) — reaffirming its position as Ireland’s leading business school and one of the world’s most globally respected institutions for business education.

First accredited in 2000, UCD College of Business was among the earliest business schools worldwide to achieve EQUIS accreditation and has now been successfully re-accredited five times — in 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025.

“As Ireland’s leading business school, we are delighted to see our position reinforced by achieving EQUIS re-accreditation for a fifth time,” said Professor Anthony Brabazon, Dean of UCD College of Business.

“This recognition endorses our long-standing commitment to excellence in business education and to developing leaders who make a positive, lasting impact on the world.”

Only 228 schools out of more than 16,000 business schools globally hold EQUIS accreditation — a hallmark of academic excellence, innovation, and strong international engagement.

The EQUIS accreditation process is globally recognised as one of the most rigorous standards for assessing quality in management education. It evaluates not only academic excellence but also a school’s internationalisation, engagement with industry, research quality, and commitment to ethics, responsibility, and sustainability.

During this most recent review, UCD College of Business was commended for its strong sense of community and collaboration, the high quality of its physical and learning environment, its robust research growth, and its resilience and innovation in navigating recent global challenges, including the pandemic and geopolitical shifts.

The report concluded that the College “clearly meets all EQUIS standards and is on an impressive trajectory.”

“I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this re-accreditation success — our faculty, professional staff, students, alumni and partners — all of whom play a vital role in shaping our community,” added Professor Brabazon. “Their dedication ensures our programmes, research and student experience remain among the best internationally.”

With this re-accreditation, UCD College of Business remains among an elite group of global institutions holding the prestigious “triple crown” accreditation — from AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS — a distinction held by less than 1.5% of business schools worldwide.

About EQUIS

EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. EQUIS is managed and run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and its fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the EFMD, is to raise the standard of management education worldwide.

Institutions that are accredited by EQUIS must demonstrate not only high general quality in all dimensions of their activities, but also a high degree of internationalisation. With companies recruiting worldwide, with students choosing to get their education outside their home countries, and with Schools building alliances across borders and continents, there is a rapidly growing need for them to be able to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education in international management. EFMD accreditation guarantees this recognition.

Accreditation from EFMD is one of the best and most complete ways to certify the quality of a Business School as accreditation involves an extensive self-assessment by the School, a visit of an international review team who spend several days interviewing many different people in the School, and finally a very experienced jury evaluating the assessment and findings of the review team to determine whether the School should be granted accreditation. There are currently no substitutes for such an in-depth assessment of quality and the Schools that have been accredited are commended for their commitment to excellence.