Achievers Lanka Business School and Excellence College of Management announce merger

The Achievers Lanka Business School and Excellence College of Management recently announced that they would merge to form a single business school, commencing from April 2018.

Achievers Lanka Business School is a brand renowned for its exceptional quality and delivery of the CIMA qualification in Sri Lanka since 2006 and has been presented with several accolades, namely the Silver Award at SLIM Brand Excellence 2012 and Asia’s Best Business School award in 2012 and 2013. The college has been responsible for producing more than 100 prize-winners and prides itself on having a lineage of over 40,000 students across its 12 years of operation.

Meanwhile, the Excellence College of Management has established its dominance in the Sri Lankan market for the ACCA qualification by producing some of the best ‘work ready’ corporates, thereby making Excellence College one of the most sought-after for ACCA graduates in Sri Lanka. This was achieved within a short tenure of just four years. Excellence College was also nominated as the SME brand of the year by SLIM in 2016.

Hence, operationally uniting these two institutions will clearly lead the way to produce a host of benefits for all its stakeholders, from faculty and students to business entities.

The new arrangement is that Achievers Lanka Business School will continue as the executive education institute for both ACCA and CIMA under which the Excellence College of Management will operate. The newly merged business school will be headquartered at No. 39, Bullers Road, Colombo 4 and provide students with comprehensive and collaborative programs and learning opportunities, whilst also giving them enhanced access to international opportunities and mentorship that are critical to their long-term success.

The merger’s objectives are twofold. The first of these being that both entities can combine their expertise to leverage on core competencies and their reputations for excellence in the provision of higher education in finance.  

The second will be the harmonisation of their programs and the centralisation of faculty recruitment that will create further value through this union by uniting a critical mass of scholars and industry experts, who will address the nation’s need for top qualified finance talent.

The overall aim through this merger therefore is to become Sri Lanka’s largest and leading business school for finance education that enables their students to compete successfully in the field of finance in the global arena.

Achievers Lanka Business School CEO Faris Ismail said: “Achievers has been an institution that has a proven track record of imparting exceptional quality in CIMA education and thereby establishing itself as the ultimate choice for students. We initiated this merger with Excellence College as it enables us to include ACCA into our already strong portfolio of CIMA, CISI and LIT while also leveraging on the strong lecture panel and processes of Excellence College. This merger will cement our position as a top-class centre for professional qualifications in finance in Sri Lanka.”

Excellence College of Management CEO Shafraz Saleem added: “We are extremely pleased to have initiated this merger with Achievers Lanka Business School. We are an organisation which has grown in stature and evolved in a very short span of time to become one of the most sought after colleges for ACCA in Sri Lanka. We achieved this through our strong lecture panel which is infused with those from both the academic and corporate world. The merger with Achievers provides us with a stronger and more established brand name while drawing synergy through the combination of two renowned lecture panels. Bringing together this faculty and programs will also enhance the reach and recognition of our programs in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Through this strategic move, Achievers Lanka Business School will be a force to be reckoned with as it aims to make a major impact in imparting  the best in  finance education for students in Sri Lanka.