The Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM) has concluded an agreement on an additional diploma program with the elite French Grande-Ecole La Rochelle Business School from France (Excelia Business School), a member of the Excelia Group.
ZSEM and Excelie students will have the opportunity to participate in this program at the undergraduate and graduate level as early as September this year. An important assumption and link for the cooperation of these two institutions is the quality of the study programs of ZSEM and Excelie confirmed by the international accreditations of both institutions.
The Zagreb School of Economics and Management in the national accreditation process in 2020 is the best rated institution in the field of economics by the Agency for Science and Higher Education, and since 2013 it has been accredited by the international AACSB accreditation. QS Global Ranking included ZSEM’s graduate MBA program in the top 200 MBA programs in the world and the top 60 MBA programs in Europe.
Excelia Business School is the holder of the so-called Triple Crown accreditation. It was accredited with EFMD-EQUIS accreditation in 2011, AACSB accreditation in 2013, and since 2020 with AMBA accreditation, thus joining only one hundred triple-accredited business schools in the world, and the Financial Times ranked it among the best business schools in the world.
Students of the Zagreb School of Economics and Management and students of the Excelia Business School can participate in the program of two diplomas. The program is in English, and upon completion of studies and meet all the requirements at both institutions, students receive a diploma of ZSEM and a diploma of Excelia Business School.
It is worth mentioning that the Excelia Business School belongs to the Grandes Écoles association, a French higher education institution that is separate from but parallel and often linked to the main framework of the French public university system. Grandes écoles are elite academic institutions that enroll students through an extremely competitive process, and a significant proportion of their graduates occupy the highest levels of French society. Similar to the Ivy League schools in the United States, Oxbridge in the United Kingdom, and the C9 League in China, graduating from the grande école is considered a prerequisite for any top state, administrative, and corporate position in France. The beginning of the grande école dates back to 1794 after the French Revolution, when the emergence of numerous grande école schools began, most likely according to the model of the military academy. In 1802, Napoleon founded the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, which is also considered the grande école. With his conquests, Napoleon expanded this model school in the French colonies, Italy, Switzerland, and some originated in the United States and China.
“The conclusion of this inter-institutional agreement between ZSEM and the prestigious Excelia Business School is the result of international recognition and positioning of the Zagreb School of Economics and Management at the global level and confirmation of its significant international influence. We are especially pleased that with this agreement we provide ZSEM students with the opportunity to obtain a degree from one of the best business schools in the world, and we also accept students from Excelie at ZSEM.”
– said the Dean of ZSEM, Dr. Mato Njavro.
