History

Dublin Business School,  1975 - 2009

• Dublin Business School (DBS) is the largest independent third level institution in Ireland and provides a comprehensive range of undergraduate, graduate, professional and executive education programmes. The School, which was originally known as Accountancy and Business College, was established in 1975 to provide evening courses for students preparing for the examinations of the professional accounting bodies. The School quickly established an excellent reputation for quality and standards and its students achieved a high level of success in the professional examinations. Based on this reputation, the School developed rapidly and by the mid 1980’s was providing accounting, marketing and banking courses for full-time and part-time students. DBS continues to offer a wide range of professional programmes and, consistently over the years, its students have achieved exceptionally high pass rates and several world status awards and prizes in the professional examinations.

• The first undergraduate programme was introduced by the School in 1989 when the BA in Business Studies (Sandwich) Programme was offered under a franchise arrangement with the Liverpool Polytechnic, now Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The relationship with Liverpool has developed successfully and the School became an Accredited Institution of LJMU in 1995. As an Accredited Institution, DBS is authorised to develop its own programmes and to nominate its own external examiners, subject to approval by LJMU. There are elaborate review arrangements in place to ensure that the programmes developed by the School meet the standards required, and students completing these programmes are conferred with LJMU degrees.

• The year 2000 was a further milestone in our development with the amalgamation of Dublin Business School and LSB College. The amalgamation was seen by those involved as the most important and exciting development in the history of independent third level education in Ireland. LSB College has now become known as DBS School of Arts.

• In 2003, Dublin Business School was acquired by Kaplan, Inc., the education division of The Washington Post Company. Kaplan, Inc. is a world leader in education, serving more than one million students per year in over 600 locations in 37 countries. Kaplan’s programs include higher and professional education, language instruction, test preparation and services to elementary/secondary students and schools. Kaplan operates more than 70 campuses in the U.S. and higher education schools in the U.K., Ireland, Asia and Australia and are also leaders in online education through Kaplan University. In the area of professional education alone, Kaplan last year provided some 600,000 courses to individuals and firms in financial services and related fields around the globe.  Kaplan, with 2008 revenue of over $2.3 billion, is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
  
  As part of Kaplan Inc., DBS will play a central role in the implementation of group strategy for global development, particularly through its strategic alliances in the European market. Kaplan Inc.’s acquisition of Dublin Business School will not alone transform the independent third-level sector of Irish education but will enhance Ireland’s standing as an international education centre.

• In March 2006, DBS acquired the European Business School (EBS). EBS was founded in 1993 and is a member of the EBSI group, a collective group of eight independent business schools located throughout Europe. EBS offers a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses for ‘study abroad’ students and provides DBS with an entry into a broader European market.
  

• In July 2007, DBS acquired Portobello College. Since its foundation in 1989, Portobello College has developed and expanded to become one of Ireland’s premier third level independent colleges. In the area of business education, the College offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The Law School at Portobello College was founded in 1991 and now provides a suite of qualifying programmes for the professional legal bodies in Ireland. Dublin Business School incorporating Portobello College is now the largest independent third level college in Ireland with over 9,000 students and the potential to deliver over 100 accredited programmes.