AACSB to change standards for DL and international perspective (and clarification)

Milton Blood was interviewed about the AACSB standards, and the changing times. In the interview, he talks about DL, which I found very interesting, as well as the international schools changing the current AACSB model. One specific quote, I think will clear up confusion on this board is:

“Q: What does an AACSB accreditation mean and are there different levels of accreditation that are provided by AACSB.

A: There are no different levels. Schools are either accredited or not. We do have accreditation in both business and accounting. That is, schools that achieve business accreditation can voluntarily opt for the additional accounting accreditation. However, those are not seen as levels, but rather as two different kinds of accreditation. “

Then in goes into how the accreditation is a strategic vision, not for any one particular program, but for the school. I think this resolves the debate to if a single program gets accredited or a school. If anybody cares to read the entire article, it can be found: Academy of Management: Learning and Education, December 2004. Volume 3, No. 4, 428-433. Happy reading.

 

Han,

According to AACSB it does not accredit schools.

http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/default.asp

"Accreditation is a process of voluntary, non-governmental review of educational institutions and programs. Institutional accreditation reviews entire colleges and universities. Specialized agencies award accreditation for professional programs and academic units in particular fields of study. As a specialized agency, AACSB International grants accreditation for undergraduate and graduate business administration and accounting programs."


The 2005 standards do not indicate school vice program accreditation as a change:

http://www.aacsb.edu/hp-standards.asp

But please keep us posted.

Kevin

 

It doesn't accredit schools, just programs.

 

AACSB accreditation is for business programs

That's correct. AACSB accredits only (business) programs not colleges or schools. Going further, I should also say that AACSB don’t actually accredit an entire academic unit of a university such as the business school of a university. AACSB accredits only programs within an academic unit. For example, in a business school of a university, hospitality and tourism program might not be accredited whereas business and accounting programs in the same business are fully accreted by AACSB. Institutional (or college, or school, or university) accreditation falls under the jurisdiction of RA, DETC, TRACS, ATS, ACICS, etc.
AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE, ABA, ABET, AMA, etc are programmatic accreditation agencies. In almost all cases, a school is expected to have acquired institutional accreditation (usually RA) before applying for programmatic or professional accreditation.

 

Maybe the head of the AACSB organization is wrong about how AACSB accreditation works Not sure, but it is an exact quote of what HE said, not me. It is a very interesting article and directly contradicts many statements made here. Each person will have to make their own call, what a person says on this BB, or the head of AACSB.

Fed - I will see if any additional articles come out and post them (or the information if there is a copyright issue).

I think what he meant by schools was Colleges, meaning "The college of business", not necessarily entire school, becuase there are cases where the "technology" departments business programs are not in the collgege of business,hence not a part of the accreditation. I have not found an example though of one program being accredited within the college, and not another.

 

Han,

Undergraduate programs only:

http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/ug-prgms-only.asp

Graduate programs only

http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/grad-prgms-only.asp


"Since of January, 2005, 494 member institutions hold AACSB business accreditation, of which 166 have additional specialized accreditation for their accounting programs. Sixty nine Accreditation Council members are outside of the United States.

36
institutions with undergraduate only programs ( 7 percent of members)

45
institutions with graduate only programs (9 percent of members)


413
institutions with both graduate and undergraduate programs (84 percent of members)"


A University that has been mentioned here a couple of times:

http://www.ship.edu/academic/index.html

is listed by AACSB as having only the undergraduate business program accredited.

The really interesting list is the one with graduate programs only.

 

This is accurate, but does not make my statement invalid. There are schools that only have one set of programs. For example, UC Davis only has a graduate program, it is not that their undergrad program is excluded, it is they do not offer an undergrad program at all.

 

Han,

THe undergraduate (business) program at the College of Business and Information Sciences (CBIS) of Tuskegee University is accredited by AACSB but some programs in the same College of Business are not included.

 

Can you point out which ones? I clicked on both links, and don't see on those pages what exactly you are referring to?

 

The College of Business and Information Science currently offers Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in eight majors:
1. Accounting
2. Business Administration
3. Economics (not included)
4. Finance
5. Management Science
6. Sales & Marketing
7. Hospitality Management (not sure if it is included)
8. Computer Science (not included)

 

Another Example

The Business School of North Carolina A&T University has the following programs:
1. Acounting (BS)
2. Business administration (BS)
3. Business Education (BS)
4. Economics (BS)
5. Transportation (BS)
6. Masters in Management Science (BS)

AACSB accredited only undergraduate programs of the business school of North Carolina A&T. In other, words the school’s MS in Management is not included. Perhaps, Economics and Transportation are also not included. If you search the Internet, there are several examples.

 

Re: Another Example

Where are you finding which programs are and are not accredited. I think that is the part I am missing. Thanks. (In either example).

 

Re: Re: Another Example

I found them at AACSB Web site. My point is that AACSB in reallity accredits business programs not college. The two examples are:

1. North Carolina A&T has accreditation for only undergraduate programs but the school's business school has a master's program in business. The implication here is that if only the undergraduate programs are accredited, it follows that the master's program is not. Also, non-business courses such as Economics and Transportation are also not accredited.

2. The undergraduate programs at the College of Business and Information Sciences (CBIS) of Tuskegee University are accredited by AACSB but the business school also offers programs in Computer Science and Economics. AACSB doesn’t accredit Computer Science programs. And Economics too?

 

Re: Re: Re: Another Example

I understand what you mean now. I think these arae very good points.

I have found in the past a HUGE number of typos and errors on the AACSB site, so maybe that is the answer, or maybe they started a graduate program after they received their initial accreditation, and they site was not update. It doesn't say much about an accrediting body that can't even get the information on their our site right.

Or maybe this is in contradiction to what the interview said, but I think the former is more likely than the latter.

 

How about one of our Business PhD, DBA holders providing a reading of the new standard. I read that using "school" to mean business school, as opposed to entire institution, that AACSB intends to accredit ALL programs unless excluded by the institution as not being reviewable for whatever reason (insufficient full-time faculty for instance). Anybody care to offer a review?

Kevin


http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/business/AACSBSTANDARDS-Jan05-Final.pdf

 

OK, I will keep silent (for as long as I can )

 

Seems like Han is right, Ike is wrong.