The EFMD International Projects Department has become a key player in modernising higher education globally. Over the past two decades, it has managed more than 70 projects across 61 countries, collaborating with 474 partners. The department focuses on four main activities: project development and leadership, knowledge contribution within consortia, provision of technical expertise, and broadening EFMD’s scope beyond traditional activities. It serves EFMD members by offering opportunities to engage in global education discourse and contribute to capacity-building efforts. The department’s success is attributed to financial support from donors, partner contributions, EFMD leadership, network credibility, and the dedication of team members.

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The International Projects Department was formally established twenty years ago with the aim of creating a dedicated team to manage international initiatives funded by external donors, in particular the European Union. Prior to its creation, international projects—including its most notable one, the establishment of CEIBS—were managed by ad hoc teams of EFMD staff and external experts.

The first initiative of the Projects Unit (its original denomination at the time), undertaken in 2001, was a small-scale regional project initiated by the EU delegation in Kazakhstan. Its purpose was to support a regional network for developing quality guidelines for management education in Central Asia, where higher education management standards were in early development.

Since then, the structure has evolved into a fully-fledged department, that has managed over 70 projects with 474 partners across 61 countries worldwide. It brings an important service for EFMD members, and enhances EFMD’s recognition and visibility both within and beyond its network.

This special edition of Global Focus acknowledges the department’s valuable contributions to international initiatives. It also provides an ideal opportunity to share information on the department’s achievements and ongoing projects with EFMD members. Despite the department’s growth, it still remains relatively unknown to some members, earning it the reputation of being EFMD’s ‘best-kept secret’.

Service to EFMD Members

International projects primarily serve EFMD members, providing unique opportunities for engagement in the global discourse on the evolution and modernisation of higher education. EFMD members can advocate for management education’s role in shaping higher education in Europe and beyond. Furthermore, joining international project consortia allows EFMD members to contribute to capacity-building efforts for universities in diverse regions.

Through these projects, EFMD members gain early access to insights, best practices, and educational innovations generated by global initiatives. As project partners, they also have the opportunity to network within consortia, building or strengthening relationships with peer institutions.

Collaborative Efforts

The International Projects Department collaborates closely with other EFMD divisions, drawing on their expertise for project missions and tasks. Experts from EFMD’s networks are engaged as contributors to international project activities. Contacts from projects and consortia are invited to share insights with the EFMD community through conferences, publications, and awards such as the Excellence in Practice Award. Additionally, project outcomes related to higher education modernisation provide reference material for EFMD’s publications and activities, promoting a continuous exchange and cross-fertilisation of ideas across the network.

EFMD International Projects Department Activities

International projects are highly varied in nature and scope, making it impossible to define a ‘standard’ project. However, these initiatives share certain common characteristics: they are typically undertaken by a consortium of partners, including universities, business schools, regulatory bodies such as ministries, and international agencies
and organisations. The number of partners ranges from five to as many as twenty-five for the largest initiatives, involving participants from various countries within and beyond the EU.
A project typically represents a long-term commitment from the partners, who agree to collaborate over a period of two to five years, and occasionally longer. The nature and duration of the project naturally influence its financial scale, ranging from a few hundred thousand euros to several million.

The overarching goal of each project is to contribute to the modernisation of higher education, whether by implementing changes at the national level or by collaboratively addressing a common issue faced by consortium partners. Regardless of scope, successful projects require partners to share their expertise, adapt it to the specific context and needs of the target country, and work closely together to develop innovative solutions that can be adopted within and beyond the consortium.

Moreover, international projects serve as a vital means of promoting European values, including democracy, respect for diversity, and inclusion and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The activities of EFMD’s International Projects Department are diverse, both in scope and nature, depending on the project’s area of intervention, thematic focus, and EFMD’s role within the consortium. They can be classified into four main categories:

Project development and leadership

These flagship projects are led by EFMD, which assumes full responsibility from project development to management and accountability to the donor organisation. These projects often arise from direct requests, particularly from the European Union, which mandate EFMD to develop and oversee initiatives aimed at modernising higher education in specific countries or regions.

For instance, EFMD has led two projects in Cuba focused on introducing management education to support the country’s economic reforms. Over a 10 year period, EFMD managed a consortium of European universities (from Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal) to train faculty, introduce new curricula in management and entrepreneurship, and establish structures within Cuba’s nine largest universities to support the “non-state” economy and develop entrepreneurship.

EFMD also undertakes projects at the request of universities or public organisations, which seek support for modernisation programmes and their implementation. For example, a new project, set to start in 2025, will support the development of digital higher education in Georgia, where this delivery mode is currently not recognised by regulatory bodies. EFMD has designed the project, recruited consortium members from Georgia and the EU, and prepared the submission for the Erasmus Capacity Building for Higher Education programme.

EFMD will lead the project, coordinate partner contributions, ensure quality control, and report to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency.

EFMD is already co-leading a similar initiative in Vietnam to support the digital transition in Vietnamese universities, enhancing their capabilities and establishing digital education structures within each institution.

Additionally, EFMD has led and implemented other large-scale capacity-building projects to enhance universities’ ‘third mission’, i.e., the dissemination of knowledge, and research outcomes beyond the academic community, in Latin America (Colombia, Panama, and Cuba) and Georgia.

Knowledge contribution within consortia

In some other projects, EFMD is invited to join consortia to provide expertise aligned with its core competencies, particularly in entrepreneurship, internationalisation and digital transition. Notable recent examples include projects on university internationalisation that were conducted respectively in Latin America, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, and Israel. EFMD has also contributed to projects establishing entrepreneurship centres in Southern Africa (Angola and Mozambique).

A special mention must be made of EFMD’s core expertise in quality assurance and accreditation, which has provided the theoretical and practical foundation for numerous projects developing specific quality assurance frameworks. As mentioned earlier, one of the department’s first initiatives was the creation of a quality assurance scheme for management education in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan). This project was followed by a larger initiative to establish an accreditation system for management education in South Asia, in close collaboration with AMDISA (the Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia). Launched in 2006, this accreditation system remains a benchmark in South Asian higher education to this day.

More recently, EFMD has contributed to developing a quality assurance system for transnational education (programmes delivered in a country other than that of the awarding institution) for Armenia and Georgia, in collaboration with the QAA (UK) and UNESCO. Additionally, EFMD supported the creation of a framework for assessing the impact of universities’ third mission in Latin America. In Georgia, EFMD is also responsible for developing quality standards and guidelines for digital education, working closely with the Ministry of Education and the National Agency for Higher Education Quality as part of a flagship project on introducing digital education in the country.

Closer to its European roots, EFMD has participated in projects focused on advancing digital education, fostering inclusivity, and promoting innovative pedagogical approaches such as gamification, e-leadership, and e-skills development.

EFMD is also committed to socially oriented projects that aim to create a more inclusive higher education environment, promote gender equality in institutions across Europe, and prepare universities to integrate displaced students. A recent project, EXIL, in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, supports universities in Poland, Lithuania, and Bulgaria in welcoming Ukrainian students fleeing the conflict.

Provision of technical expertise in quality management, impact evaluation and dissemination

EFMD frequently joins consortia to provide technical expertise in project quality management and impact evaluation, drawing on its established background in educational impact assessment.

EFMD’s contribution is particularly sought for disseminating project results, leveraging the strength of its networks and international reach to maximise visibility and impact.

Equally important, though less visible to external audiences, is the expertise the department has developed in project monitoring and reporting. EFMD International Projects are primarily funded by international donors, particularly the European Union through its Erasmus+ programme. All these projects are highly competitive; for instance, the success rate for Capacity Building projects was approximately 15% for the last call in 2023. Meeting such stringent selection criteria necessitates advanced technical skills to formulate proposals that demonstrate their alignment with national and regional contexts and needs, quality of consortium, efficiency of activities, and potential for impact and exploitation. Each successful initiative typically involves months, if not years, of meticulous planning and preparation.

Once a project is selected for funding, quality control and reporting are essential. Since these initiatives are publicly funded, they are subject to rigorous control. In addition to regular financial reporting, projects go through stringent internal and external quality assessments and undergo systematic external financial audits. This requires a perfect understanding and expertise in internationally accepted financial reporting standards, combined with the specific management procedures of the Erasmus programme. EFMD takes pride in the capabilities it has cultivated in these areas, establishing the department as a trusted reference for consortia in which it participates. This expertise explains why EFMD is frequently invited to take on a management or co-management role in projects, transferring knowledge to less experienced partners, particularly those from countries or regions with less formalised reporting systems.

In conclusion, the activities of the EFMD International Projects Department can be summarised in three main objectives:

• Broadening scope beyond traditional EFMD activities: while EFMD’s core focus is on management education, the department actively engages with a diverse range of higher education actors. This includes not only business schools but also comprehensive national universities, specialised education institutions and vocational trainers, international organisations and donors, regulatory bodies and ministries. The department also serves as a bridge to other educational networks, such as the European University Association and the European Association of Higher Education, fostering cooperation and knowledge exchange at conferences and events.
• Addressing transversal themes beyond management education: the department explores areas of importance that may not directly relate to management education, covering cross-cutting themes such as the social impact of higher education, inclusion, and gender equality.
• Operating in emerging regions for management education: the department is active in countries or regions where management education is still developing, including the countries originating from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and the Caribbean, South Asia and Pakistan, as well as Africa, in particular Southern Africa, to mention the location of some of the recent initiatives. It has also established strong partnerships with institutions and networks in Central and South Asia, regions that are traditionally underrepresented within EFMD’s membership.

In these ways, the International Projects Department complements and enriches the EFMD network, enhancing its visibility and recognition in diverse regions worldwide.

Reflecting on these 20 years of intense activity, some projects have long been completed, having effectively addressed the issues they were commissioned to resolve, while others continue to bear fruit, contributing to the evolution of their respective national or regional educational landscapes. What endures, regardless of each project’s specific impact, are the invaluable professional and personal relationships that have flourished over time and the commitment to work together with higher education professionals and institutions dedicated to the modernisation and advancement of higher education.

EFMD has gained significant recognition as a key player in promoting European values, advancing higher education, and acting as a catalyst for change, as stated in its mission.

The success of these projects has been made possible by the convergence of several critical factors:

• the financial support from our international donors, particularly the European Union through its Erasmus programme;
• the invaluable contributions of our partners, who brought their expertise and a collaborative spirit to work alongside EFMD;
• the continuous support of EFMD’s leadership, particularly the vision and encouragement of Eric Cornuel, who decided to create the department and who always supported its growth;
• the credibility, expertise, and extensive reach of the EFMD network within the educational community;
• and, fundamentally, the dedication of the department team members, whose enthusiasm, professionalism, and resilience have ensured successful project delivery whatever the constraints, pressures, and sometimes adverse conditions they had to face.

Without this combination of factors, none of these achievements would have been possible. I extend my profound gratitude and am confident that the years ahead will bring even more accomplishments and successes.