Accredited Doctorates

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Michigan68, May 23, 2016.

Loading...
  1. Michigan68

    Michigan68 Active Member

    I reviewed some information on degree programs accredited by: Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).

    Their site says: "ACBSP accredits business programs. ACBSP does not accredit the institution, only the business programs offered at the institution."

    It seems that many schools have their Bachelors and Masters programs accredited, but NOT their doctoral business programs.

    So . . . . . How would a doctorate that is RA, but business program not accredited, be viewed by a company or to a school for teaching as an adjunct?


    Michael
     
  2. rootuser

    rootuser New Member

    I worked at a mid-size state university whose business school was AACSB. They only hired those, even for adjunct, that had AACSB degrees. My guess though would be this would vary based on the school and from AACSB to ACBSP.
     
  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    My first thought: a company will not care too much, a school will care more.
     
  4. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    AACSB-accredited B-schools expect their faculties to hold their degrees from AACSB-accredited schools. I doubt it matters much to ACBSP-accredited schools that their faculty are from other ACBSP-accredited schools.
     
  5. Michigan68

    Michigan68 Active Member

    Has anyone heard of a non-AACSB school not hiring an adjunct because their RA doctorate business degree because their business program wasn't accredited by anyone ?
     
  6. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    No.

    If a school decided to exclude holders of degrees from non-AACSB-accredited programs, it might indicate the school was pursuing AACSB accreditation.

    AACSB accreditation has three uses, only two of them direct. First, getting into an AACSB-accredited MBA program is easier if your undergraduate business degree was from an AACSB-accredited bachelor's program. Also, you will likely have to take fewer prerequisite courses before entering the MBA proper. Second, AACSB-accredited schools tend to get their faculty from other AACSB schools. I doubt this is a hard-and-fast requirement, but it's a pretty strong one. Finally, AACSB accreditation correlates strongly with B-school rankings. Almost all of the top-rated schools are AACSB accredited. (Could be that AACSB has shown a great interest in accrediting such schools, rather than such accreditation driving high quality.)
     
  7. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    Rich,
    You have said as much many times over the years. I do believe this has some merit but I do question if this is a bit of a chicken and egg issue. AACSB does have requirements and the top B-schools just like any other AACSB school must abide by them. Unless you are aware of case where Wharton or HBS regulations are more lax than of a state university for example. I do agree that AACSB get more out accrediting the top level institutions than they get from the accreditation. I just wonder how accurate your statement really is(i.e. AACSB has structured their accreditation around the top schools and not the other way around). Also seeing that AACSB has been around since the early 1900's, how do you even go about proving which came first.
     
  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Seeing that I posed it as a question and not an assertion (a "statement"), I'm not sure what you're attributing to me.

    Standards are not only measured by their strictness (or lack thereof). They're also measured by their specificity. To answer this question, one might try to determine to what extent the schools adhere to the AACSB's requirements. If, hypothetically, the top schools were able to do things and have content inconsistent with AACSB's standards, one might conclude that AACSB is following, not leading. Again, hypothetically, it's hard to imagine Stanford or Harvard would be inhibited from moving in a really creative direction just because it ran counter to AACSB's requirements.

    This would be an interesting master's thesis.
     
  9. BIGA

    BIGA Member

    If an ACBSP Accredited business school has a Bachelor's or Master's accredited program and then adds a higher level program MBA in the first instance or doctoral in the second, the school would have a certain period of time to bring that program forward for accreditation or face being placed on probation. There may be special cases where a school could convince ACBSP why a certain degree program would not be brought forward for accreditation and at ACBSP's discretion that argument may or may not be accepted.

    Generally speaking, if a school has ACBSP accreditation and adds new business programs these programs need to be brought inline with the standards and this is verified through biannual QA reports, reaffirmation or in some cases a commissioner's review.

    Usually it's the weaker name recognition AACSB schools or the ones trying get AACSB accreditation, who are the ones trying to appease AACSB and specify AACSB in the hiring ads. The better schools can take whoever they want with impunity as long as AQ and PQ requirements are met and they get the pick from the cream of the crop in terms of potential, Tier 1 publications, reputation etc. For example AACSB Wharton School vs AACSB East BF State or one of the hokey foreign outfits that recently gained AACSB.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2016
  10. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    I read it more as assertion, not a question. Though it is one that has been made before. I apologize for my misunderstanding. I do agree it would be a great topic!
     
  11. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Let me just address how a company feels...

    The vast majority of them don't care about programmatic accreditation. ASCSB? that's great. ACBSP? why not? IACBE? Sure. Just RA? That'll do.

    Very few companies even check that a school has institutional accreditation let alone programmatic accreditation. Unless it is a requirement for licensure it is unlikely to matter to a private company. Many are just fine with NA, in fact. And more than we are all comfortable with are completely OK with unaccredited degrees.
     
  12. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    There are certain businesses that feel as though certain schools have better graduates. They will recruit there(and pay a premium). This does not mean that what you said isn't true, it merely means that some companies will recruit from Syracuse and if someone from Mass. College of Liberal Arts applies for a position, they are not as likely to get it. It has nothing to do with the fact MCLA is ACBSP and Syracuse is AACSB accredited. It has more to do with what Rich was saying, not all schools carry the same prestige and the higher the prestige the more likely they are to be AACSB(or a state funded university). This can go further, two candidates apply for the same position all other things being fairly equal you are more likely to pick the Syracuse graduate over the MCLA graduate(at least in most companies).
     

Share This Page