Business schools have long had loose affiliations with each other via joint programmes or faculty and student exchanges. But earlier this year, six of the Netherlands’ leading schools decided to go a step further.

They have joined forces to found the Dutch Association of University Business Schools, which plans to focus on both quality improvement and promoting common interests.

This is the first time Dutch business schools have initiated such a joint venture. Initial plans include conducting research and connecting their national and international alumni networks.

The schools involved are Rotterdam School of Management, TiasNimbas Business School, Academische Opleidingen Groningen (AOG), University Maastricht Business School (UMBS), TSM Business School and Nyenrode Business University. A seventh, the University of Amsterdam Business School, is expected to join shortly.

All are well-established business schools and many already have links with international accrediting bodies, such as the AACSB, the Association of MBAs, and Equis, the accrediting arm of the European Foundation for Management Development.

Nevertheless, the schools felt they needed something more both to raise their profile and to get their message across.

Ivo Matser, chairman of the association and director general of the TSM Business School, says that the driving force behind the association is internationalisation.

As Europe develops economically, he says, employers are demanding more international orientation from their employees and business schools have to respond.

Many European schools are too small to be able to do this on their own.

Moreover alumni are also increasingly global and schools need to develop new programmes that reflect this. “What we teach in our classrooms we must do as well,” says Prof Matser.

Philippe Naert, dean of TiasNimbas Business School in the Netherlands and one of the association’s members, believes there is strength in numbers.

“As a group we may well be able to have more influence than as an individual institution,” he says. Accreditation is one of the areas where he hopes the association may be able to make an impact.

“One of the difficulties and dangers [of accreditation] is that you get regression to the mean,” he says. “Standards imply limited differentiation, but this means limited innovation.”

Prof Naert fears that an innovative school may well have difficulty in securing accreditation if it is too far removed from established standards.

While he is uncertain whether or not the association will be able to make any headway in altering the way in which the accrediting bodies work, he hopes the power of six will have a greater and more sustained impact than the individual schools.

Prof Matser concurs. The association, he says, believes accreditation for management education would be better if based on different criteria: “When you’re alone, you don’t have any chance to change this.”

Another reason for the association’s decision to band together is to improve networking. While the European Foundation for Management Development based in Brussels is useful for networking as a global instituion with more than 600 member organisations, Prof Naert says that a smaller community is preferable for topics needing more in-depth discussion.

Eric Cornuel, director general at EFMD, says the Dutch schools’ initiative is highly commendable and it receives the organisation’s full support. With the internationalisation of management education over the past decade competition has increased and traditional markets are changing, he says.

“This is a very forward-thinking response from the schools involved who realise that collaboration with the common good of promoting Dutch higher education can only have long term benefits.”

A recent report by CarringtonCrisp, marketing consultants, and EFMD on the Business of Business School Branding, reported the majority of respondents chose to study business to improve earning potential and career prospects.

Prof Cornuel says this indicated the importance of links to the corporate world and a well-managed and resourced alumni office.

With the schools linking their alumni relations both parties benefit, as do all of the schools’ corporate partners because it increases the pool of talented people available to them.

Undoubtedly, as business schools increasingly seek to raise their global profiles and competition grows for both top faculty and top students, such networking links will become increasingly common.

Carnet is a careers network of 11 European business schools. It aims to create partnerships between the schools, students and recruiters, which will in turn feed into consultancy projects, jobs and international co-operation.

In the UK, the Association of Business Schools is a well-established body, representing UK schools and acting as an independent networking organisation. It works in policy development, promotion and representation, and training and development programmes.

More schools can be expected to link up, formally or informally, in the coming years.

“As the world is coming to terms with globalisation, so too is the academic community,” says Prof Cornuel. “Although information and knowledge are widely available with the click of a mouse, the importance of personal relationships and networks has never been more relevant.”