Accreditation and Rankings of Universities: Theory of Global Accreditation in the World of (Dis)Order

At the beginning of the third decade, the time of great uncertainties and disorder, higher education institutions re-discovered that accreditation and rankings serve as the visibil-ity mechanisms to attract students, partners and stakeholders. The goal of this paper is threefold: to introduce the Theory of Global Accreditation (TGA) for different organisa-tions (universities, firms, and business schools), to illustrate changes which take place as a result of accreditation practices and to reflect some trends in the market of global edu-cation with different accreditation and ranking schemes. Although the word ‘Accredita-tion’ is used from 1535, the accreditation trends became the new “political” phenomenon in the 21st century. The paper answers the questions: why and how do organisations seek the international accreditations and what are their impacts. The explanation of an observed phenomenon is helpful in a new world disorder filled with crises in multiple fields, and TGA can answer some practical questions of different academic and business organisations as well as different stakeholders as well as facilitate in predicting and grasping the level of expected changes. The examples of accreditation practices are pro-vided for the global business education and in the European Higher Education Area, in line with rankings with the explanation how they become an ‘accelerator’ of higher edu-cation reforms with the growing impact on the landscape of higher education. It is also perceived that international accreditation and rankings agencies can expand their ser-vices becoming the potential areas for consulting, research and science diplomacy in the new world of global disorder. Keywords: Accreditation; Quality Assurance (QA); Rankings; Theory of Global Accredita-tion; Globalisation; Organisational and Institutional Change;