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BBA: Bachelor of Business Administration , MA: Business Innovation , MA: Communication and Future Marketing , MA: Fashion and Luxury Business Management , MA: Tourism and Hospitality Management, MBA: Master of Business Administration , MSc: Digital Business , MSc: Digital Marketing and E-Commerce , MSc: Entrepreneurship , MSc: Finance , MSc: Financial Management, Digital Banking, and Internet Finance , MSc: International Business Management , MSc: Marketing Management , MSc: Operations and Supply Chain Management
Basis for the decision/program comments Standard 1: Leadership The business unit focus on innovation and program development is evidenced through the vision of its leadership. A significant amount of work and innovative thought have resulted in the development of programs and projects relevant to the needs of students and employers. There is clear evidence of leadership's commitment to the continuous quest for quality education and innovation. Verified: This Strength was verified on site. Institution Comment There is no Institution Comment. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Standard 2: Strategic Planning It is evident that the business unit has established a clear strategic direction to better address key student and program performance requirements. Leadership of the business unit recognizes the importance of setting a comprehensive strategic planning process that leads to the creation of an action plan that accomplishes goals and objectives set. Verified: This Strength was verified on site. Institution Comment There is no Institution Comment. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Standard 5: Faculty and Staff Focus The business unit is focused on quality of teaching and involvement of industry experts. 100% of faculty are professionally qualified and professors are supported by activities such as conferences when it is relevant to their expertise. Verified: This Strength was verified on site. Institution Comment There is no Institution Comment. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Criterion 5.3 The business unit has 100% professionally qualified faculty for bachelor's programs, experts form industry, and newly developed areas of expertise. Categories: Approach Verified: This Strength was verified on site. Institution Comment There is no Institution Comment. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Criterion 5.4 Deployment of faculty members is monitored and follows national law and standards. Categories: Approach Verified: This Strength was verified on site. Institution Comment There is no Institution Comment. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) (11)Criterion 2.1 The leadership of the business unit has demonstrated its ability to develop a comprehensive strategic plan with actionable goals and objectives and a clear timeline to achieve those goals and objectives. However, there is no evidence of faculty or other stakeholder participation in the development or review of the strategic plan. The business unit would benefit from actively engaging faculty, staff, and stakeholders in the formulation, development, and implementation of the strategic plan. It is also important to communicate the strategic plan and goal achievement progress to stakeholders. Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment GBSB Global recognizes the fact that stakeholders' participation during the elaboration of last strategic plan (due to end this year) was informal and could have been higher. For this reason, the leadership team is in the process of implementing new actions to address this aspect in the new strategic plan that will be developed during 2020 and published for consultation. In this respect, during second half of 2019, the leadership team has already involved faculty and students to provide their view of the school's strategic direction with the purpose of starting to itinerate on a new strategic plan development. We are sorry for not being asked to show this evidence during the site visit. Please see attached this evidence: Email dated 10.06.2019 from Prof. Guerra to faculty and management with subject: Objective, Goals and Action Plan for the GBSB School: A contribution to our school and the application of real life situations in class Email dated 13.06.2019 from Prof. Guerra to faculty and management with subject: Application of Porter´s Five forces that shape the strategy to the GBSB Global School of Business Examples of protocols documenting contribution of the students to the development of the new strategic plan of GBSB Global. Commissioner Note The business unit is at the early stages of engaging faculty, staff, and stakeholders in the formulation, development, and implementation of the strategic plan. The unit would benefit from a more structured approach to the strategic planning process.Standard 3: Student and Stakeholder Focus Communication to stakeholders appears to be one-sided. The business unit would benefit from establishing communication channels to allow for stakeholder input to be considered. Stakeholder groups appear to be not established or in the initial stages of development with no meaningful feedback provided to the business unit. Deeper focus on closer cooperation and discussion with groups of students, faculty, advisory board, employers, graduates/alumni and other stakeholders would benefit the business unit through the constant sharing of input from representatives of the each stakeholder group. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment GBSB Global recognizes there is an improvement opportunity in relation to the level of formalization when establishing communication with some of our stakeholders (i.e. faculty, employers); however, being a school that promotes a highly personalized approach to each student (class size is not more than 30 students), student's formal and informal feedback is highly thought after and highly considered. As evidence of that, please see attached minutes from meetings with the Student Council - which is formally established at school since 2016. We present some minutes from 2017 (even with an old school logo) and some more recent ones - to demonstrate how Student Council inputs are collected and considered year after year. Apart from formal Student Council meetings, there is plenty of informal two-sided communication with administration, the Dean and the Student Lead. As elaborated in previous comments, faculty is involved in different ways (e.g. in developing a strategic plan, in proposing initiates) and has direct access to the school's management. Please see attached evidence (emails) of that in the form of ongoing two-sided communication between faculty and school's management team (the school's Dean - Dr. Yelena Smirnova, the Head of Innovation and Development - Dr. Olga Ivanova, Managing Director - Antonio Rodriguez Engelmann). Professor Dr. Moran proposing a lecture on the new coronavirus; Professor Guerra proposing to write a case study about the school's success; Professor Gascon contacting Olga Ivanova and asking for a meeting to discuss his suggestions in relation to the BBA 1 program of study; Professor Karseladze being contacted by the Dean Dr. Smirnova asking him to assist with finance courses design for the Spanish accreditation. Please note, these are just examples of daily ongoing communication and initiatives coming from the faculty members, all of which are taken into consideration. As explained in previous comments, some important initiatives - e.g. G-Accelerator - a start-up incubator, came entirely from our faculty proposals. In 2018 GBSB Global set up an Alumni Association that now has 160 members and held the first Alumni Reunion in June 2019. In 2019 and 2020 GBSB Global held successful career fairs with employers on campus where several leading national and international companies participated. This became possible because of a continuous collaboration with these companies, listening to them and providing them with required interns and graduates. GBSB Global leadership commits to improving the formalization level of communication with our stakeholders and we will put actions in plan to gather further formal evidence of a continuous two-sided communication. However, we don't share the statement that "Communication to stakeholders appears to be one-sided". We kindly ask to review the evidence provided with this comment to prove the contrary. Commissioner Condition The business unit has identified its major stakeholders (Students/Alumni/Community/Prospective Students/ Staff and faculty/Industry/Government/Accreditators) however it only showcased systematic engagement with students and more ad-hoc basis with some faculty members. The business unit must have a systematic procedure in place to involve its stakeholders in order to enhance communication and determine their expectations. Criterion 3.1 Internal processes of evaluation and analysis could be improved through transparent sharing with stakeholders. Categories: Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment Kindly see institution comments and further evidence presented to Criterion 1.1., Standard 2 - Strategic Planning, Criterion 2.1., Standard 3 - Student and Stakeholder Focus. As elaborated in these previous comments, different stakeholders are involved in different ways (e.g. in developing a strategic plan, in proposing initiates) and have direct access to the school's management. Kindly consider evidence (emails, Student Council meeting minutes, protocols of students' participation in the school's strategy development) that demonstrate that there is an ongoing two-sided communication between stakeholders and the school's management team (the school's Dean - Dr. Yelena Smirnova, the Head of Innovation and Development - Dr. Olga Ivanova, Managing Director - Antonio Rodriguez Engelmann). Following the comments of the site visit team, we are going to implement more formal collection of feedback with some stakeholders (particularly faculty) though meeting minutes, formal committee decisions, and proper documentation as opposite to the current system of informal communication which is feasible due to the relatively small size of our organization. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Criterion 3.3 Students do not have clear contact (office) hours with faculty or Student Services. The only access students have to faculty is through online access or prior arrangement for consultation. Meetings are arranged only on an appointment-request basis. Scheduling permanent contact (office) hours could help students with access to their professors who may not feel comfortable reaching out to professors to request a meeting. Categories: Approach Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment One of the strengths noted by the site visit team in the criterion 5.4: Students can always reach out to faculty/professors via the online system or e-mail to address their concerns. GBSB Global Business School believes that technology can improve life. Being a Microsoft Showcase School and having a strong technology infrastructure allows the school to have a policy of "Virtual Office Hours". All members of the GBSB Global's community have various communication tools, including a mobile app, though which they can chat, do a video call, etc. This greatly substitutes the need for traditional office hours with faculty members. Regarding Academic and Students Affairs Department - it is open for all students and has clear open hours policy. Students can also talk to the Student Lead (an employee at the Academic and Students Affairs Department) - who is available throughout the whole day on campus and via massager in off campus hours. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Criterion 4.2 Course grades are used as the only measurement instruments for criterion 4.2, but instructions specify that course grades are not to be used as measurement instruments. Other measurement instruments will provide more specific ways to measure results. Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment This comment is linked to the comment we provide for the Criterion 4.1. We believe the site visit team did not see the Evidence File Source which contained all the required information and analysis of data for the Standard 4. We did not use course grades to report the three successive sets of periodic assessment results. The results are reported for the end-of-module final projects each of them being associated with a specific learning outcome of each program. We also reported summative assessment results and indirect assessment results. While preparing the Standard 4, our ACBSP mentor Carlos Tasso Aquino revised the document where we reported all information for the Standard 4 and approved the approach. We are truly sorry for this misunderstanding which took place during the site visit, however, the site visit team did not ask us any direct questions about this so we could timely clarify all doubts. Commissioner Note The school has used the final score/grade/cumulative score in a number of assessment tools as performance indicator. The school should find different ways to report on their learning assessment results Criterion 4.2 specifies that learning outcome competencies that are measurable in each core business program, as well as competencies in each concentration, must be defined. The self-study did not include such competencies. Hence, the definition, measurement, and analysis of competencies for each program might be beneficial for the business unit. Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment The learning outcomes competencies for each program were provided in the same evidence file source that was attached to different criterions in the Standard 4. As required by the Standard 4 "State the learning objectives for each program" - they are provided and further measured by different instruments. All results are detailed in the same document. We attach the document again for consideration of the board. Commissioner None/OFI all is included in the measurement and analysis documentCriterion 5.1 The HR plan is not in place and no specific measures, budget, or goals are listed. HR procedures do not include career planning and specific information on development of faculty. The business unit would benefit from clarification of needs for faculty, their specific qualifications (focus on PhD), and approximate budget needed to recruit, manage, and develop faculty members. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment The HR Plan was provided in the Evidence File Sources in the Criterion 5.1. with the self-study. The HR plan details GBSB Global's approach to planning different organizational HR needs and includes specific information on the development of staff and faculty in the section "Training and Professional Development", pages 27 to 32. The HR plan also includes information concerning the number of needed staff and faculty (recruitment plans), including faculty with PhD and the budget for training and development in the section "Main Objectives" of the HR Plan, page 44. We attach the HR Plan again for the consideration of the board. Commissioner Note The HR plan is not in place and no specific measures, budget, or goals are listed. HR procedures do not include career planning and specific information on development of faculty. The business unit would benefit from clarification of needs for faculty, their specific qualifications (focus on PhD), and approximate budget needed to recruit, manage, and develop faculty members.Criterion 5.3 Master programs (MA and MSc) do not meet the criterion of 70% academically qualified faculty. The business unit would benefit from identifying a plan to increase the number of academically qualified professors to meet criterion requirements. Categories: Approach, Results, Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment We have acknowledged these circumstances in the self-study, criterion 5.3.2.b indicating that it is mostly attributed to the practical and innovative focus of the school and the lack of academically qualified faculty in new disciplines. Being one of the most technologically advanced schools in Spain and delivering disciplines which are completely new not only in the educational field but also in the marketplace creates certain difficulties in recruiting faculty holding relevant PhD/doctorate degree and at the same time possessing knowledge and skills in the latest break-through technologies. For instance, some of such courses include: Enabling Gamification through Digital Technologies, Digital Law, FinTech: Principles and Technologies of Internet Finance, Agile Methodologies & Design Thinking, Digital Operations, Design and Web Optimization, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, Digital Banking & New Customer Experience, UX & Conversion, Design and Creation of E-Commerce, Big Data, etc. For this type of courses, the best faculty profile is the one who has an extensive industry experience in a certain discipline and can teach students how things work in a real business world by bringing the most recent practical knowledge to classroom and creating networking opportunities. Nevertheless, we trust that following changing business environment trends more people will be doing research in these areas and focusing their PhD studies on these new immerging areas allowing GBSB Global to seek more academically-qualified candidates for these teaching roles. Commissioner Condition Master programs (MA and MSc) do not meet the criterion of 70% academically qualified faculty. The business unit would benefit from identifying a plan to increase the number of academically qualified professors to meet criterion requirements.Criterion 5.4 There is no full-time faculty member per each program taught in each location or online. The business unit runs 14 programs (mostly MA/MBA) with 10 full-time faculty members for all locations. The long-term assurance of quality and continuity is therefore at risk. The business unit would benefit from focusing on the development of adequate number of teaching professors. Categories: Deployment, Results, Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment Kindly note, the national standards require a number of faculty per number of enrolled students and not per number of programs. There are currently around 300 students at GBSB Global and the Faculty (FTE) Student ratio fully meets the requirements established at Real Decree 420/2015, of the 29th of May “Creation, recognition, authorization and accreditation of universities and tertiary education colleges” approved by the Ministry of Education in Spain and which says in its Article 7, Section 2: “The total number of faculty and research members at each university cannot be less than 1/25 in relation to the total number of enrolled students” Real Decree 420/2015. In case of Barcelona campus, this ratio is 1/16,4, while in Madrid and Online campuses this ratio is 1/8,05 and 1/8,6 respectively. This is because Madrid campus is a much smaller campus in contrast to Barcelona and is still in the initial growth stage and online programs were launched in October 2019 meaning that they are also in the initial growth stage. As the number of students grow at these locations, there will be an increase in academic and other staff numbers. Nevertheless, as demonstrated in the HR plan provided with the self-study, in the past two years GBSB Global increased the number of full-time faculty members more than two times, from 4 in 2017 to 10 in 2019 and will continue doing so along with the growth of the students' body. Commissioner Comment There is no Commissioner note or condition.Criterion 5.8 Development activities are limited to professional areas. Faculty with PhDs have very limited scholarly activity or publication records and some have no scholarly activities at all during the self-study period. The business unit would benefit from placing more emphasis on supporting faculty in the scholarship of discovery, integration, and application to recognize and develop the overall performance of each faculty member and to achieve high standard of excellence. Categories: Approach, Improvements Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment We recognize there is room for improvement in this area, and the current situation is due to the type of education we provide as a business school. Being an employability-oriented institution with very innovative business programs (fintech, digital business, business innovation) where most of our faculty (even the ones with PhD) come from the industry means there is not much room for them to engage in research / publication activity as all of them are really connected with professional activities (start-ups, consulting, management). Nevertheless, GBSB Global is working on developing more institutional research opportunities and for this reason we have signed collaboration agreements with two public universities (the University of Vic, Spain and the University of Northampton (UK). The plans are to engage our faculty in conjoint research projects with these institutions and provide an opportunity for practice-based, applicable research for a more meaningful input relevant to the current industry needs. Commissioner Note Development activities are limited to professional areas. Faculty with PhDs have very limited scholarly activity or publication records and some have no scholarly activities at all during the self-study period. The business unit would benefit from placing more emphasis on supporting faculty in the scholarship of discovery, integration, and application to recognize and develop the overall performance of each faculty member and to achieve high standard of excellence.Criterion 6.1.7 The inclusion of evidence files on this criterion would be beneficial for its analysis. No information was provided in the evidence file. Verified: This OFI was verified on site. Institution Comment Our understanding was that we were not required to present any data in this criterion. However, all data mentioned has been presented within other criterions of the self-study as explained below. Please kindly note that the evidence information mentioned in this criterion has also been provided during the site visit and in the evidence file sources associated with other criterions of the self-study. Particularly: Course Evaluation Surveys: The site visit team inspected the course evaluation database during the process of inspecting evidence related to faculty evaluation. Please see attached the course evaluation survey. Kindly note, the partial average results of course evaluation per each program are provided as part of the Indirect, Internal, Summative Assessment in the Standard 4 (evidence file sources); Satisfaction Rate: School satisfaction rates per different programs were reported in the self-study in the criterion 6.2.2. - Business Operation Processes. Please see attached the satisfaction survey itself as well as the results reported in the criterion 6.2.2 (evidence file sources). Additionally, the site visit team inspected the raw data during the site visit; Metrics & Rates: All metrics and rates mentioned in this criterion were reported in the criterion 6.3.6 "Results of Enrollment Management" in the evidence file sources. Please see attached this document. One of the strengths to the criterion 6.3.6 noted by the site visit team - "Information in the self-study was verified on site." Attendance: The site visit team evaluated the process of monitoring attendance by expecting attendance control sheets and attendance database; Employability Statistics: The Employment Report which contains all graduate statistics was presented to the site visit team during the visit. Please see the employment report attached, and the statistics can be found on page 29 to 36.
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