Amberton now has ACBSP Accreditation

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by Allvia, Jun 17, 2022.

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  1. Allvia

    Allvia New Member

  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Perhaps I missed it, but what is the significance of ACBSP accreditation? It appears to be a distinction without a difference, but perhaps I am mistaken.
     
  3. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I assume that is the program is accredited, but business degree without AACSB accreditation would be tough for academia. In the professional world, properly ACBSP or without ACBSP accreditation does not make any differences.
     
  4. cacoleman1983

    cacoleman1983 Well-Known Member

    It's a programmatic accreditation for accredited universities offering business degree majors. We have discussed foreign universities for several years who get this accreditation even though they may not have full recognition in the countries they are offering their degrees. This type of programmatic accreditation has given credential evaluators (i.e. Validential) a reason to give a regionally accredited equivalency here in the US as well as foreign universities (i.e. UCN) to offer some type of validation degree to add a fully accredited degree by association.
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Is there a world where it does make a difference? That was my question.

    Yes, we know. Not my question.

    Validential does not appear to be a member of NACES. Doesn't that limit its value in terms of foreign degree recognition?

    Are there industry-recognized (NACES) members who use ACBSP accreditation as a factor towards recognizing a degree as being from an RA-equivalent school?

    Still trying to figure out how the distinction of having this form of accreditation makes a material difference.
     
  6. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I think ACBSP accreditation is great for a "check the box" program.
     
  7. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    Tiers:

    1. AACSB
    2. ACBSP
    3. IACBE

    And I'd say the prestige gaps between 1 and 2, 1 and 3, and 2 and 3 are huge, and that 2 isn't making it better for itself with some of its questionable calls.
     
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  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Why is that?
     
  9. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Is there actual meaning to the gap? And is it infinite since 2 and 3 are irrelevant?
     
  10. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I think the gold-standard in business education would be AACSB. However, in industry it is not required that a degree be accredited by AACSB. So long as the degree is regionally-accredited (with notable exceptions to NA) and holds some semblance of quality, which ACBSP does, then I would say it is a good check the box accreditor.

    However, it is tough to argue the fact that HBS, Stanford GSB, Kellogg, Yale SOM, Haas, Fuqua, Stern, etc. holding AACSB Accreditation does not enhance the smaller schools that AACSB Accreditation. It is just known that AACSB, generally speaking with exceptions, accreditation superior b-schools.
     
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  11. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I don't think anyone would dispute that.
    Okay, but what difference does it make? Is there any situation where ACBSP accreditation makes a difference? Does it make one's degree any more valuable?

    Remember, you go to a university to get an education and a degree. Even if we could assume that ACBSP-accredited schools offer a better education--and a certainly do NOT accept that prima facie--what impact does it have on the degree?

    We know AACSB accreditation correlates with better B-schools--almost all of whom are AACSB-accredited. We also know of tangible, observable situations where AACSB accreditation is required.

    If we cannot rely on ACBSP accreditation to deliver superior education, and if its accreditation doesn't enhance the power of the degree issued, what good is it? (Except as a marketing tool targeting people who do not make these distinctions, of course.)

    No person on this thread is responsible for these answers, nor for defending ACBSP accreditation. And I'm not attacking it. I'm asking a simple question and noticing that there aren't any good answers.
     
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  12. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    My apologies, Rich. I misunderstood your original question which got us to this.

    I see some good B-Schools get accredited by ACBSP but is does seem that it's accreditation does not enhance the degree of that B-School. I do not have any hard data on it, but from my own observation, the individuals who attend a program that is ACBSP accredited typically do so based on a need for a promotion. I have yet run across someone who went to Walden for an MBA that then became a consultant at McKinsey, Bain, or Boston.
     
  13. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    That's true for about 95% of all business schools, isn't it?

    I contend that ACBSP accreditation is immaterial and does not indicate, nor correlate with, either education quality or the value of the credential issued. As with all such things, it is open to alteration should new data be presented.
     
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  14. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    Probably not to most people. People that are more in-the-know like those of us that visit these parts would be more keen to consider the reasons why there are perceived differences.

    AACSB accredits a higher concentration of what are considered top schools (Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, etc) ACBSP lesser schools (Western Governors, CHARISMA) IACBE even lesser schools (Wright Graduate University, Columbia Southern), so without comparing standards (and I mean that in the sense that it generally isn't what the public looks at to determine tiers) it mostly comes down to perception which may or may not be fair.
     
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  15. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    Just to let you know AACSB is NOT recognized by the USDOE any longer and frankly those poopers don't really care either. Their programmatic/secondary accreditation may be the "grand-daddy" to recognition but it doesn't really mean those programs accredited by them are superior in any fashion either. Furthermore, there are slight differences in their programs levels that they accredit, ACBSP accredits at the Associates level for community colleges as well.

    IACBE is relatively unknown, I haven't seen any job posting ever requesting this in the last several years at least... However, I have seen community colleges asking for ACBSP accredited degrees as preference for their instructors. Other than that, there really isn't any quality checks that add to programmatic or secondary accreditation. It's just that people associate these with additional points they need to follow to verify they are up to certain standards. Go figure, who knows...
     
  16. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I think once you reach a certain point, you could argue that an AACSB Accredited program is not superior to an ACBSP program.

    My Southeastern Oklahoma State University MBA is probably no more superior than a Western Governors MBA. However, an MBA from an elite program (let's just say a US NEWS Top 25 program) will hold AACSB Accreditation and will be far more superior than any ACBSP program. If you look at the quality of the students, employment outcomes, etc. then it is evident.
     
  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes - I think that "certain point" is six martinis. :D
     
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  18. Maxwell_Smart

    Maxwell_Smart Active Member

    What an organization attaches itself to goes along with perception or is instrumental in building it, negatively or positively but in this case negatively. ACBSP has accredited some real stinkers so they've hurt themselves in that regard. IACBE may be even worse, but who really knows? No one really gives a damn to watch them enough to notice.
     
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  19. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    I think ACBSP may have some significance. I've seen faculty positions in business where an ACBSP doctorate was required. This may be especially true of ACBSP accredited schools.
     
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  20. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    A subset of Amberton's newly ACBSP programs holds further specialized accreditation still: the BBA and MBA in Project Management and MS in Agile Project Management are accredited by the PMI GAC.
     
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