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Who we are

The Mission

The primary purpose of the AAPBS is to provide leadership and representation in order to advance the quality of business and management education in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Association will accomplish its mission by collaborating in research and teaching, and working in partnership to improve business school standards and quality.

AAPBS and its members are striving to understand and develop a solid paradigm for an Asian management education model within a global context. We are calling you to join us in this effort.

The History and Inauguration of AAPBS

A call for greater collaboration
Back in May 2001, deans of 17 business schools in Asia and Australia met at KAIST Graduate School of Management, in Seoul, to attend “the Workshop for Development and Collaboration of Asian Business Schools”. Sharing a common view that there was a need for greater intra-regional cooperation in business education, they unanimously agreed to hold a “Forum of Asian-Pacific Business Schools” (FoAPBS) on a formal and regular basis thereafter.

The 2nd FoAPBS took place in 2002 at the National Taiwan University, the 3rd in 2003 at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the 4th in 2004 at Queensland University of Technology. Following the spirit of the first forum, a wide range of topics were brought up for discussion from development of executive MBA programs, cross-border research opportunities, research capacity enhancement, establishment of the region’s highly-regarded research journals to quality assurance and accreditation of Asian business schools.

With many challenges and opportunities on the horizon, it became increasingly clear that a powerhouse to drive the development of business education is an essential prerequisite for the region in a bid to fill the gap between its economic potential and its management capabilities.

Meeting Asia-Pacific’s challenges
October 17, 2004 marked a new milestone in the development of management education in Asia-Pacific as 11 business school deans met in Seoul to decide on the formal establishment of a new organization: the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS). An inaugural committee of the Association Council was formed and entrusted with the task of bringing this resolution to full fruition.

The prime mover of this endeavor was Prof. Sung Joo Park, then Dean of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of Management. Under his leadership as the founding president of the fledgling establishment, the organizational infrastructure was carefully put in place, specifically the AAPBS Constitution, the backbone of the new entity.

AAPBS’ aspiration is encapsulated in the Association’s catch phrase:”Towards Global Managers, Global Leaders, Global Cooperation”. The Association vows to provide leadership and representation in order to advance the quality of business and management education in the Asia-Pacific region through collaboration in research and teaching, and working in partnership to improve business school standards and quality.

Taking the lead
In the year that followed, AAPBS welcomed over a hundred thought leaders of Asian management education to its first annual conference at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, where they avidly shared their visions and ideas on ways and means to attain the highest quality level of business education in the Asia-Pacific region.

Recognizing its raison d’ être and importance, the Chinese government and the business sector readily showed their support for AAPBS. The presence of Chinese education authorities and topmost executives from Lenovo Group and Mckinsey & Company who shared their perspectives at the conference not only added weight to the AAPBS mission but also brought the Association beyond the academic boundary.

With a significant increase in the number of population, share of global GDP, portion of Asia-Pacific based global companies; the region has steadily grown in importance. So has the demand for a new level of standards and cooperation in business education.

Against this backdrop, subsequent AAPBS annual conferences (the 2nd in Ahmedabad, India, the 3rd in Hong Kong and the 4th in Shanghai, China) become a central forum whereby key issues such as AAPBS accreditation, development of academic research capability, MBA and executive education, corporate social responsibility education were brought into sharp focus.

The 5th AAPBS Annual Conference will be held in Bangkok in November 2009. UNCTAD Secretary-General, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, will be delivering the keynote address. Highlights of the three-day event will be the presentations on global patterns and trends of graduate management education; challenges and opportunities that come with change; and quality improvement through global accreditation.

In addition to its annual conference which is geared towards the deans, AAPBS holds a bi-annual workshop in spring where faculty members from its representative schools are encouraged to attend and share ideas, research and learn from each other. The faculty workshop underlines the association’s emphasis on outreach and advocacy for regional collaboration around research and advancement of business education.

To date the Association has 17 representative schools working to shape the role of the region’s management education in close collaboration with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). With determination and dynamism, AAPBS will continue to lead the way to develop a solid paradigm for a regional management education model within a global context as it forges ahead into the future.

Constitution of AAPBS

The Constitution is available as a PDF file: Download Constitution

Council Members

Inaugural Representative Institutions
Australia: University of Sydney
China: Tsinghua University
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
India: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Japan: Keio University
Korea: KAIST College of Business
New Zealand: University of Otago
Philippines: Asian Institute of Management (AIM)
Singapore: National University of Singapore
Taiwan: National Taiwan University
Thailand: Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Chulalongkorn University
Additional Representative Institutions
Australia: University of Queensland
China: Fudan University
Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong
India: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Korea: Yonsei University
Malaysia: University of Malaya

Executive Committee
Dean Bernard Yeung, National University of Singapore,
AAPBS President.
Dean Tim Brailsford, University of Queensland,
AAPBS Vice President / President Elect.
Director Toemsakdi Krishnamra, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration,
AAPBS Past-President.
Dean Peter W. Wolnizer, University of Sydney,
AAPBS Executive Member.
Dean Victoria Licuanan, Asian Institute of Management
AAPBS Executive Member.

Officer
Professor Jason Lawrence, KAIST Business School,
AAPBS Secretary-General.

List of Member Institutions (by country/region)
Australia
Belgium
China
France
Germany
Hong Kong SAR
India
Indonesia
Japan
Korea
Malaysia
New Zealand
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Singapore
Taiwan
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States
Vietnam