Mission Statement

Educational Benchmarking provides the most comprehensive, comparative assessment instruments and analysis to support quality improvement efforts.

Company History

At the annual meeting of the Big Ten MBA Program Managers 1993, a lengthy discussion ensued between Dr. Joseph Pica and Glenn Detrick (VP of GMAC at the time) regarding comparison of data across programs. Frustrated by the lack of data collected on a standard that would allow comparisons, Dr. Pica volunteered to organize a benchmarking study that would identify key analysis factors and create a set of data definitions to assure comparability. Glenn, then Vice President of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), agreed to lend his advice and the expertise of the company to the development of the project. Educators collaborated and mapped out a data collection instrument that would provide standard definitions and methods for collecting data regarding MBA programs. They focused their attention on admissions and student recruiting, class profiles, financial aid, budgeting, staffing, student services, placement, and curricula.

A pilot assessment was conducted and results were reported at the 1994 GMAC annual meeting. Participating schools were very enthusiastic about the usefulness of the comparative analysis and program attendees voiced their interest in participating in future efforts. Subsequently, in 1994, EBI was formed to provide benchmarking services for MBA education. Sixty-eight schools participated in the first MBA Administrative Benchmarking Project in 1994/1995.

In the following project, begun in 1996, the authoritative EBI assessment was born. Initially, ninety-eight management schools participated in a very successful effort to benchmark student satisfaction levels in their full and part-time MBA programs. Graduating students were asked about their satisfaction with administrative support, teaching in required and elective courses, skills development, placement services, teaching quality in the academic disciplines, facilities, classmates, and their overall satisfaction with the program. This project was expanded in 1997 to include a separate assessment to look at satisfaction levels of graduating Undergraduate business students. Several new assessments were created in 1998, including faculty satisfaction and residence hall satisfaction. For each assessment, schools received reports detailing the perceptions of their own students as well as the satisfaction levels of students at six participating peer or competitive schools of their choice (Select 6).

Our first products started in Management Education and have expanded to include Nursing Education, Teacher Education, Fraternity/Sorority Life, College and University Housing, High School Students, First Year Initiative, Engineering Education and College Union/Student Center.

EBI continues to transform and expand to meet the demands of an ever-changing education and corporate climate. Now, our assessment and analysis capabilities are used worldwide within the general business, healthcare, social sciences, education, government and professional research markets.

After Glenn Detrick’s retirement from EBI in 2003, Dr. Joseph Pica (CEO) and Joanne Zinski (VP of Operations), took over Educational Benchmarking Inc.

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