School accreditation influences student choice

Accreditation as a guarantee of quality

A label is an indicator of quality. Whether in the form of a label, logo or pictogram, it provides information about the compliance of products, services and institutions with standards (ethical, ecological, manufacturing, etc.). Common in fields such as food (AOP, AOC, Label Rouge...) or business (Great Place to Work, Top Employer, ISO 9001...), their role is still marginal in higher education.

In a landscape dominated by rankings, such as the Shanghai ranking for universities, the accreditations of leading business schools are playing an increasingly important role in students' choices. The trio of accreditations that have been gaining ground over the past twenty years are the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), the Association to advance collegiate schools of business (AACSB) and the Association of Masters of Business Administration (AMBA). To date, only thirteen French schools have been awarded the "triple crown" of holding all three labels.

What influence do labels have in higher education?

In a study published in the Economics of Education Review, Julien Jacqmin (NEOMA Business School) and Mathieu Lefebvre (Aix-Marseille School of Economics) looked at the influence of these accreditations in the choice of future students at France's Grandes Écoles de Commerce.

Based on business school accreditations and student orientation choices from 2004 to 2019 established via the centralized SIGEM procedure, they came to the conclusion that obtaining at least one of the three major accreditations has an impact similar to a rise of between one and four ranks in the Écoles de Commerce rankings published by L'Étudiant magazine. What's more, these effects are also partially cumulative, with the greatest gain in influence observed when the "triple crown" is obtained. They also vary over time, with a peak in attractiveness between the third and sixth years after graduation, followed by a gradual decline.

These results show that, in a context where they are not very prevalent, quality labels can play an important role in students' preferences for different schools.