Business Accreditation: When does it apply?

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by sanantone, Jun 3, 2017.

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  1. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Some of us on the other forum are wondering what TESU recently earning ACBSP accreditation means for students under older catalogs. Of course, we could just call the school, but TESU's employees tend to be clueless. TESU hasn't even listed the ACBSP accreditation on their website even though it appears that they've had it for months.

    I think TESU applied for accreditation in 2015 or 2016. They changed their business programs slightly by moving microeconomics and macroeconomics from the general education section to the business core, which eliminated 6 credits in business electives. Otherwise, their business programs are pretty much the same.

    Would ACBSP accreditation apply to everyone who is graduating from TESU in 2017 or later, or does it only apply to those who started attending after TESU applied for accreditation? I've never heard of accreditation being listed on a transcript, but someone on the other forum was wondering if it is. All I know is that catalog years are not listed on the transcript.
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    To be honest, I wonder whether it really mans anything to students on the current catalog.
     
  3. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    What do you mean? For employment purposes? I know that programmatic accreditation is rarely needed, but it's required for some federal government jobs. APUS is one school that requires additional prerequisites if your business degree didn't come from an AACSB or ACBSP-accredited business school. In some states, you automatically qualify to sit for the CPA exam if your degree is from an AACSB or ACBSP-accredited school, so you won't have to go through a course-by-course review.
     
  4. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    All these add-on accreditations above RA only marginalize the people who who already been marginalized. It creates unnecessary higher barriers to entry because of costs and other so-called quality initiatives. Many of these universities can drop these accreditations and see no difference in quality. Quality may even improve because they won't be restrained to make improvements. Add-on accreditations are like the in thing - you got to have one until a few people in high places start calling them out.
     
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Wait a minute ... they're the people who all have degrees bristling with add-ons... :shock:

    J.
     
  6. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Ironically, there is a current thread on City Data on the importance of accreditation for MBAs. Most people think that AACSB accreditation is important or very important, but they can't explain why.

    Programmatic business accreditation, while not needed for the overwhelming majority of jobs, is still nice to have just in case you run into that dream job or internship that happens to require it.
     
  7. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately, you are right. However, someone must speak for the subaltern and other marginalized groups whose universities cannot get one of these fancy add-ons because they are not well financed, or they cater to a population who will not afford the addition passed-on cost. Subaltern and the marginalized do not have a voice. These add-ons are now being exported to third world countries creating even bigger disadvantages, because only the elites from the ruling class and colonial class may be able to attend these universities with western alphabetical soup whatchamacallits. The Subaltern and the marginalized are then being double marginalized. Ironically, it will take someone from the inside to call it out.
     
  8. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    My transcripts list the schools accreditations, all of them, on the back in light print. Many of those accreditations don't apply to my programs at all. But they are there. They also list accreditations should that were added well after my dates of attendance. The paper is standard for all transcripts.

    I've not encountered a state that grants any special privilege to ACBSP accredited programs officially, like those that make things easier for CPA candidates from AACSB. But it wouldn't surprise me. I've heard, anecdotally, from some of our accountants (who came in unlicensed) that New York State has a generally favorable view of ACBSP programs. You do the course by course eval, but it is almost surely going to pass muster. I don't know if that's true or just an unqualified perception by those individuals or, perhaps, an attempt to justify that their schools accreditation is just as good as one with AACSB.
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately, the more enterprising insiders will possibly counter by inventing good (or not so good), homebrew alphabet soup, made with local ingredients at a (maybe only slightly) lower cost. Something similar has been achieved in Europe, e.g. business accreditation by EQUIS and AMBA - both of which belong squarely in the "good" column.

    Not a great solution, I agree, but it's what could happen - depending how cleverly the homebrew accreditation - and its imprimatur - are marketed overseas.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 4, 2017
  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I have a couple of unproductive thoughts. The first is that in a competitive market, any advantage should be sought. In a world where everyone has an MBA (for job application/promotion purposes) does professional accreditation of your MBA provide an advantage? However slight? Personally, I would think work history more important but I don't work in that kind of cubicle environment so I'm not the best person to say. Second thought - I've long maintained that there are more MBA programs out there than the market can contain. There's been no drop off yet as new programs continue to drip-drop into the bucket of available online programs. Still. I believe that at some point they will begin to close. Small school/expensive first but will non-professionally accredited programs be more vulnerable to this extinction process? If professional accreditation is actually a competitive advantage than it should serve as a survival factor, in a sort of Darwinian sense.
     
  11. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    I wouldn't recommend TESU for an MBA due to cost. There are cheaper, online MBA programs with ACBSP and AACSB accreditation. But, this does provide added value to TESU's undergraduate students, who are often working with tight budgets. Someone could go to University of the People, or that person could pay a little more at TESU for regional and ACBSP accreditation. In many cases, TESU will be cheaper since University of the People doesn't have a system set up yet for transfer credits. This is especially great for TESU students in Illinois or other states with similar CPA requirements, but Illinois requires a graduate degree. I wonder if governments are ever going to start recognizing IACBE.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 5, 2017
  12. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

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