10 years on from receiving AACSB accreditation (a first at the time for a Business School outside of North America), ESSEC has been heavily involved in the re-accreditation process over the past twelve months.

The editing of an exhaustive report covering matters from the very beginnings of the School and the academic context in France today through to the most specific and current information pertaining to recruitment, research and courses is an important stage in preparing the visit to ESSEC on March 12-13 of a panel of AACSB representatives (officially known as the Peer Review Team).

Coordination of the AACSB re-accreditation project was the responsibility of Marie-Laure Djelic (Dean of the Faculty).
An entire team was mobilized and in that process Delphine Lefebvre played a particular role as she was in charge of gathering and compiling information, coordinating the writing and editing of the different documents, in direct and constant collaboration with Marie-Laure Djelic.

Delphine explains the difference in approach compared to the initial accreditation report ten years ago:

"The aim of the Maintenance of Accreditation Report is to emphasize the main developments that have taken place in the business school since the initial accreditation in 1997, in line with the school's mission. It includes such varied fields as the strategic orientations of the Group, the measures implemented to ensure continuing pedagogical quality and innovation, the calculation of ratios concerning Faculty sufficiency and Faculty qualification.
A specific team was created to gather the information needed to calculate those important ratios. Furthermore, new standards were added by the AACSB in 2003 concerning what the AACSB calls learning goals - a school needs to identify its key learning goals, in coherence with its mission and values, and define the assessment tools that are used to measure that those learning goals are achieved.
The procedure involved for the maintenance of the AACSB accreditation is undoubtedly a great opportunity for us to take the time to stand back while providing a broad picture of the work we do at ESSEC."

Founded in 1916, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business acts in support of management education worldwide and offers a guarantee of quality within its member institutions, at program, research and faculty levels and also in terms of the learning goals that each member school sets itself. Successful receipt of accreditation is widely regarded as an important achievement for a business or management school.

The total number of institutions to have received AASCB accreditation stood at 540 worldwide in December 2006. Representatives of each member school convene on an annual basis for a meeting and conference. This year's edition will be held in Tampa Bay, Florida on April 22-24.