Liberty University's School of Business programs receive ACBSP accreditation

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by curtisc83, Dec 3, 2013.

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  1. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    November 27, 2013 : Liberty University News Service
    Liberty University’s business programs recently received accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).

    ACBSP is a specialized accreditation association for business education that supports, celebrates, and rewards teaching excellence. It promotes continuous improvement and recognizes excellence in the accreditation of business education programs around the world. ACBSP is the only organization offering specialized business accreditation for all degree levels, from associate through doctoral degree programs.

    “ACBSP accreditation status creates an environment which continues to focus on relevancy to best serve students; it enhances the School of Business’ ability to focus on quality performance, and it reaffirms the school’s desire and commitment to striving for excellence,” said Scott Hicks, dean of the School of Business. “A student attending an institution with ACBSP-accredited programs can have the confidence in knowing that they will receive a quality education and be provided with opportunities to develop skills and knowledge to compete in today’s workplace.”

    Accredited programs in the School of Business include: undergraduate programs in business administration, business management, accounting, and information systems; associate degree programs in accounting, business administration, business management information systems; and the Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Accounting.

    The accreditation encompasses both resident and online programs and is retroactive to 1988.

    “It was our goal through this process to bring glory to God by adding value to our programs and serve our internal and external stakeholders,” Hicks said. “This was a team effort that was made possible by focusing on this goal and shared vision. ACBSP accreditation will strengthen our reputation as we seek to make an impact in the business community. Our graduates will not only have the knowledge and skills needed to be successful; they will also have the values. This will continue to set them apart, as they strive to serve God in all they do.”


    School of Business programs receive ACBSP accreditation | Liberty University
     
  2. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    That's a very long reach backwards. I'm going to guess that this is consistent with standard procedure for the ACBSP. It isn't for many – most? by far? – other recognized accreditors.

    And congratulations to Liberty and its people.
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    It's backdated a quarter century? That's really weird.
     
  4. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    There are two business school accreditors, right? What's the difference between them? Our smaller state universities are ACBSP but the two flagship schools are AACSB so both are legitimate.
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    There is also IACBE, a third one now recognized by CHEA. The difference is that IACBE and ACBSP are more oriented toward the teaching of business, whereas AACSB is more oriented toward researching business. There are also AMBA, which is popular in the UK, and EQUIS, which is popular among foreign schools of business.
     
  6. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    AACSB, established 1916, is by far the oldest and most exclusive club for US business schools. This is where you will generally find the state flagships and most prestigious private schools. Members are expected to have selective admissions and to emphasize research.

    Most US business schools don't qualify for AACSB. In 1988, ACBSP was founded to serve this large market. This is where you will generally find the second-tier state schools and the less prestigious private schools. Emphasis is on teaching, rather than research.

    The founder of ACBSP was eventually pushed out; he then went on to establish IACBE as an alternative to ACBSP in 1997. IACBE obtained CHEA recognition in 2011. Seems to be most attractive to smaller schools.

    *****

    Most business school faculty are AACSB graduates. It's not unusual for job postings at ACBSP schools to include the phrase "AACSB graduates preferred".
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  7. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Internationally, AACSB (originally US), AMBA (originally UK), and EQUIS (originally continental Europe) are the big players. Several dozen business schools now boast "triple accreditation" from all three.

    Interestingly, there are no "triple accredited" schools in the US (although there are some in Canada and Mexico). Apparently this is because AMBA requires MBA candidates to have at least 3 years of professional work experience. US business schools are accustomed to taking students directly from college, and are reluctant to change that policy.
     
  8. Pugbelly2

    Pugbelly2 Member

    I wonder why the Master of Arts in Management and Leadership isn't listed??? It's offered through the business school like the other degrees that were listed.
     
  9. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    As a student at Liberty, I do not think ACBSP is a big deal for me. My take is either no business accreditation if it is not AMBA, EQUIS or AACSB. ACBSP put me in a class of universities that I do not want to have any association. I prefer Liberty without ACBSP. When UNISA dropped DETC, that made me happy because it was no longer in the same association with certain institutions.
     
  10. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    I was wondering the same. My degree is the one you mentioned and wasn't listed. I'm thinking they briefly mentioned some of the degrees covered by ACBSP.
     
  11. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    Lots of good schools have ACBSP. Some not so good schools like UOPX and AIU also have it. I wouldn't let the for-profits spoil it for you though. I think this new accreditation is good news. I do agree it isn't a big deal unless it was something like AACSB.
     
  12. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ACBSP accreditation doesn't automatically cover the whole business school -- it only covers specific degree programs. There has to be a separate application for each program. So it's possible for some of the business programs at a given school to be accredited, while others are not. Also, the initial accreditation process can take years, so recently-established programs may not be included; they may not have even existed when the initial application was submitted.

    Note, for example, that the Liberty business school also offers the DBA degree, yet the DBA is not mentioned in the press release in Post #1 above. Furthermore, the DBA is not listed on the Liberty University page at the ACBSP website.

    It wouldn't be surprising if Liberty focused its accreditation efforts on its largest and most popular business programs. So some of the smaller or newer programs may be missing.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2013
  13. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    Well that blows. I guess my MA from LU doesn't fall under ACBSP yet :( I hope they add it later.
     
  14. BiggestofA

    BiggestofA New Member

    A slightly different viewpoint

    Yes, I have seen this one before.
     
  15. BiggestofA

    BiggestofA New Member

    What defines a big player?

    How is ACBSP not a big player? 800 institutions? That puts it on par numbers-wise with SACS, one of the more well known US regional accreditors.
     
  16. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    From my viewpoint, an accreditor is not a big player based on the number of institutions accredited by it. It's a big player based on how many jobs (inside and outside of academia) require or prefer that accreditation. When trying to explain the various programmatic business accreditors to someone on another forum, I did a search on Indeed. IACBE came up with 2 pages of results, ACBSP came up with 6 pages of results, and AACSB came up with 57 pages of results. I didn't come across any jobs outside of academia that asked for an IACBE-accredited degree. I came across one federal job that had a preference for an ACBSP or AACSB-accredited business degree. I came across 16 other non-academic jobs that asked for AACSB accreditation. Granted, a total of 17 non-academic jobs out of 57 pages of results is not much, but it's a lot more than what I got for the other accreditors. Just from a quick glance I did for the academic jobs that mentioned IACBE, they seemed to generally be asking for familiarity with the requirements or just mentioning that their business schools are accredited by them instead of asking for the applicant's degree to be accredited by them.
     
  17. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ACBSP is clearly a big player within the US. However, my post referred to the big players "internationally". ACBSP accredits relatively few schools outside of the US, and many of those are foreign campuses of US schools. Prominent business schools in countries like the UK, Israel, or Australia have AACSB accreditation, while there is little or no evidence of ACBSP.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2013
  18. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    At least in Europe, I think that's because it's more the turf of the European Council for Business Accreditation, which I believe has some sort of MoU with ACBSP.
     
  19. BiggestofA

    BiggestofA New Member

    Dear CalDog and DegreeInfo Readers,

    One might ask, what qualifies an accreditation agency as being a big player internationally anyway?

    Here is evidence that ACBSP challenges internationally.

    ACBSP had what they call their first International Conference last weekend in Brussels. Keynote speakers were EU government officials. Actually it is not ACBSP's first international meeting, but rather it is an outgrowth of past years highly successful gatherings of the Region 8 schools, the International Council of Business Schools and Programs.

    Counting the US ACBSP staff from the home office there were about 120 people who attended. Region 8 which has 111 member schools hosted the event. However, it should be mentioned that ACBSP now has two other International Regions, Region 9 Latin America, and Region 10 South Asia.

    About 23 different countries were represented, coming from Western Europe (Spain, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece), Eastern Europe (Slovenia and Macedonia), Central Asia, (Kazakhstan, Kyrgysztan, Mongolia) with the furthest coming from China and South America. A faith based institution from California sent a representative to contest and win one of the awards. Six schools from Switzerland were there. Two schools, one from Paris and another from Mongolia celebrated achieving accreditation. There were four schools from the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE), whose representatives won at least two awards, and there were schools from Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Algeria and Nigeria).

    Information presented in this forum posting is factual and has been verified in person.
     
  20. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    ACBSP has been great for those universities that do that have recognition in their home countries. Universities like SMC etc can now have a bit of respectability by claiming US DOE recognition by virtue of ACBSP. I am not sure if ACBSP brings anything more to regional accredited universities.
     

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