October 19th 2016

MCI Earns Worldwide Top Business School Accreditation

Management Center Innsbruck has earned initial accreditation by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

The Entrepreneurial School® has good reason to celebrate. The executive board of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), based in Tampa, USA, has approved the worldwide AACSB accreditation of MCI as a first class business school.

AACSB was founded in 1916 as an 'association of the best' and has renowned universities like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley Cornell and Chicago among its founding members.

The successful accreditation was preceded by a multi-year evaluation process with a special focus on research, teaching, executive education, creation of enterprises, career prospects for graduates and the school’s impact on the economy.

The accreditation was granted for the maximum allowed period of five years without any constrains, which is quite an unusual achievement for newly accredited institutions. Therefore, MCI has become part of the top league business schools: worldwide, less than five per cent of all collegiate schools in the field of economics and business have earned this prestigious distinction.

Management Center Innsbruck is a university institution in Innsbruck, Austria, that was formed according to private company law offering study programs leading to Bachelor and Master degrees, as well as Executive Master programs (MBA, MSc, LL.M), executive certificate programs and trainings, management seminars, tailor-made company trainings and research and development.

The MCI’s tag line “The Entrepreneurial School®” and its motto “Mentoring the Motivated” echo the institution’s strong philosophy centered on real world learning, close collaboration with industry, entrepreneurialism and innovation as well as significant and individualized support for students.

“It takes a great deal of commitment and determination to earn AACSB Accreditation,” said Robert D. Reid, Executive Vice President and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. “Business schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty, and professional staff must make a commitment to ongoing continuous improvement to ensure that the institution will continue to deliver the highest quality of education to students.”

“MCI’s international accreditation shows the potential Austria has as a center of science and research” states Reinhold Mitterlehner, the Austrian Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Science, Research and Economy. “Excellent results are usually achieved when good frameworks are used by those who are motivated and have a willingness to perform.”

Günther Platter, Governor of the Tirol, shows similar pride when he says that “Economically, the Tirol is one of Europe’s most successful regions. It is great to see that what we have invested bears fruit and that efforts like a future-oriented ‘Campus Tirol’, fostering the Tirol as a strong location for research, education and business, pay-off.”

“Innsbruck, the capital of the Tirol can be very proud of ‚the ‚Entrepreneurial School®‘ as it is a unique and very special institution” says Mayor Christine Oppitz-Plörer. “MCI equals a success story which needs to be continued and carried forward. This is how we can ensure economic prosperity, cultural richness and societal stability”.

For Andreas Altmann, Rector of MCI, the successful accreditation is at the same time a request and obligation: ”The AACSB accreditation echoes our performance to date and it will support us in reaching our goals in research, education, technology and innovation. My special thanks and gratitude however, go out to the MCI teams working in research, teaching, management and administration as well as to our maintainers, supporters, sponsors, partners, students and graduates.”

To learn more about AACSB International accreditation, visit the accreditation section of the AACSB International Web site at www.aacsb.edu/accreditation.