BRUSSELS, BELGIUM--(Marketwired - Jan 30, 2014) - Today at the 2014 EFMD Deans & Director General Conference in Gothenburg hosted by the University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics and Law, EFMD officially launched BSIS - Business School Impact Survey.

Prof. Eric Cornuel, CEO & Director General of EFMD said, "BSIS is a vital addition to the EFMD portfolio of services as it provides a process and tool to capture the value that a school brings to a defined region. It is a service for any business school anywhere in the world that is interested in collecting key statistical data on its impact. Once collected this information can then be used both internally and externally with key stakeholders to widen the debate about "the role of business schools in society" and showcase the enormous added value and impact they bring to a community."

The BSIS scheme identifies the tangible and intangible benefits that a business school brings to its local environment. For example, a school spends money in its impact zone; it provides jobs and pays salaries that are partially spent in the zone; and it attracts faculty and students from outside the zone whose expenditures contribute to the local economy. Beyond this measurable financial impact, a school contributes to the life of the community in numerous ways. Its faculty generates new business creation through entrepreneurial projects and support local business needs through professional training. Its students are a source of dynamism in the life of the region and are a valuable talent resource when they graduate. A business school also provides an important intellectual forum for the introduction of new ideas in a wide variety of social, cultural and political areas of concern within a region. Last but not least, it contributes to the image of the city or region.

"Demonstrating the many ways in which they add economic and social value to the environment in which they operate has become a challenge for business schools. To meet this demand for greater accountability, BSIS is an effective tool to help schools identify, measure and communicate all the positive contributions they make to the world around them," added Prof. Gordon Shenton, Senior Advisor, EFMD.

At a time when all organisations, public or private, are being held accountable for their activities, there is a need to demonstrate the impact that they are having on their immediate environment. This is particularly the case when they are financed or politically supported by local stakeholders.

"From my experience of BSIS in seven French Business Schools (La Rochelle Business School, IAE Lyon, Groupe ESC Troyes, Audencia, IAE Grenoble, EM Normandie and Toulouse Business School) the first benefit of BSIS was unexpected, as the process significantly raised the awareness within the school of the importance of its impact on the Region. The second major benefit from going through the BSIS review was it substantially improved communication with all of the key stakeholders of the Business Schools," said Michel Kalika, Senior Advisor, EFMD.

The BSIS scheme was initially designed by FNEGE (the French National Foundation for Management Education) and is already well established in the French higher education arena. The BSIS process has been adapted for an international audience and is now offered in a joint venture between EFMD and FNEGE as a service to EFMD members in any part of the world.

If you would like further information or are interested in your school taking part you can visit www.efmd.org/bsis or email bsis@efmd.org.

About EFMD

EFMD is a leading international network of business schools and companies (820 members / 82 countries) at the forefront or raising the standards of management education and development globally. EFMD runs the EQUIS and EPAS accreditation systems as well as the EFMD Deans Across Frontiers development programme (EDAF) and is one of the key reference points for management education worldwide. http://www.efmd.org.