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IT'S a subtle name change, but the newly branded Bond Business School is aiming to position Bond University as a serious player in business education.
The new Bond Business School already has an edge, according to executive dean Professor Mark Hirst.
"Bond is unique because 26 years ago we were actually created in the image of the best business schools in the world - Harvard and Stanford - so it's not as if we are changing from one path to another," he says.
"What we are on about is reconfirm that we are moving along the path we are already on - deepen or engagement and intimacy with the business community.
"We needed to show we were agile. While we wanted to retain the status of a faculty, we felt we needed to be a school.
"The rebadging is a symbol of our past, showing where we are now and also looking forward to where we want to be."
The name change for Bond's Faculty of Business was suggested by Bond Chancellor Helen Nugent five years ago, but Hirst concedes it has been a process that needed to take time.
He says the new positioning builds on the Business Faculty's historical connection with the business community and signals an intensified focus on 'blurring the lines' between the boardroom and the classroom.
"This change to become the Bond Business School acknowledges that we put as much focus on the 'business' as we do on the 'school'.
"We've created a uniquely immersive learning environment where entrepreneurs and senior executives come into the classroom to work with students on real case studies and business challenges.
"The learning experience then goes out to the workplace where internships and capstone projects are recognised as subject units that count towards a student's degree."
The rebranding comes on the heels of Bond gaining international accreditation under the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS).
Managed and run by the Brussels-based European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), EQUIS is the international gold standard system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration.
Less than 2 per cent of the world's 13,000 business programs are EQUIS accredited and Bond Business School is one of only eight in Australia to have dual EQUIS and AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation.
"The EQUIS approval process put us under the microscope with an in-depth review of the School, strategy, programs, research, community outreach and global competitive positioning conducted by a panel of international experts," says Hirst.
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