The Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA) was established in 1988, with the initiative of leading management development institutions in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. AMDISA is an international not-for-profit association, and is a “SAARC Recognised Body”. It has 228 members, of which 195 are Institutional Members from the SAARC region, 4 Affiliate Members, 15 Corporate Members and 14 Reciprocal Members. The Reciprocal Members are Institutions with similar objectives outside South Asia and includes Institutions such as Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, USA; European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Belgium; Russian Association of Business Education (RABE), Russia; Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), Slovenia; Association of Business Schools (ABS), UK; Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), Australia, etc. Membership is available to management development networks all over the world.
The mission of AMDISA is to “Promote management excellence in South Asia by networking management development institutions and facilitating their partnership with corporate enterprises and public agencies in the region.”
This is the only Association which networks management development institutions across the South Asian nations, through exchange of information, conducting regional conferences and providing a forum for academics and business leaders. The Association interfaces business schools with leaders interested in management development; promotes professional development of management faculty; provides institution-building assistance to business schools and corporate management development centers in the region. AMDISA organizes institution-building workshops for Heads of Institutions, Faculty Workshops on frontier areas of management and inter-institutional cooperative research on contemporary managerial issues in South Asia.
AMDISA launched a global benchmark quality assurance and accreditation system for Business Schools in this part of the world called as South Asian Quality Assurance System with acronym as SAQS. SAQS is the quality assurance scheme run by AMDISA as a service to the management education profession worldwide. SAQS is the South Asian system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. Its fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the AMDISA, is to raise the quality and standard of management education. AMDISA facilitates standard setting, benchmarking, mutual learning, and the dissemination of good practice across borders. The SAQS Quality Label is intended to provide recognition beyond the domestic environment to institutions that, in addition to satisfying high quality standards in their national market, are also credible in the international arena. So far, five reputed schools, four from India and one from Pakistan, have availed the services offered by SAQS, and have been accredited by AMDISA. Twelve more schools, eight from India, three from Pakistan and one from Bangladesh, are in various stages of the SAQS process, after having been found eligible by the SAQS Committee. More schools in the region are expected to seek the academic guidance and strategic audit provided by SAQS in the near future.
AMDISA publishes a Newsletter three times a year and the South Asian Journal of Management, quarterly. The South Asian Journal of Management (SAJM) was founded in response to the global needs to know about the current research and practice in the field of management in South Asia; the South Asian needs to network management development institutions; create a forum for promoting cooperative research and constructive dialogue on contemporary issues in South Asian Management. It is a prestigious publication and is indexed by two internationally acclaimed database services, EBSCO and ProQuest. The Editor of the SAJM is Dr Mathew J Manimala, Professor of Organization Behaviour & Jamuna Raghavan Chair Professor of Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
AMDISA is registered under Societies Registration Act, under Indian Law and is funded by membership subscription, corporate contributions and project assistance received from regional as well as global agencies and has received assistance from ILO, INTERMAN, Commonwealth Secretariat, Canadian International Agency, Asia-Pacific Development Centre.
AMDISA’s administrative structure includes the General Assembly of members held every two years, which elects an Executive Board. It has eleven members representing all member nations. The current President of AMDISA is
Mr Karma Tshering, Director, Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu, Bhutan, and the Vice President is Dr Dinesh Prasad Pant, Executive Director, Nepal Administrative Staff College, Kathmandu, Nepal. The Presidents of National Networks in South Asia, Past Presidents of AMDISA and Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad are Invitees to the Executive Board. Its permanent Secretariat is located in the University of Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India, and is headed by an Executive Director. While the Secretariat serves the membership and initiates activity plans, its activities are hosted by member institutions in different countries of South Asia. The Secretariat houses a documentation centre and is equipped to organize meetings and seminars.
