AACSB and IACBE Accreditation

My sister-in-law is a Harvard MBA, and I asked her if the term AACSB meant anything to her. After looking at me for a second like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, she replied, "No, should it?"

I then asked if she knew what type of accreditation Harvard Business School holds. She told me she never thought about it, she just assumed that Harvard was accredited

 

Questions on Accreditation?

1. What do the following initials stand for?
a. AACSB? ("American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business" or "Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business"? I believe I've seen it called both.)
b. IACBE?

2. Whereas it is possible to pick up a college catalog (or go to their website) and read, "XYZ University of Ottawa County, Ohio has NA from DETC and ACICS, RA from NCA, and PA from AACSB, ACBSP, and IACBE (School of Business) NCATE (School of Education), and ATS, ABHE, and TRACS (School of Religion)," is there a way to determine when XYZ University actually achieved each of those accreditations?

 

Re: Questions on Accreditation?

a. Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (although it might have changed the name when it started accrediting international schools).

b. International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education

 

I agree. There are just too many graduates of RA programs to allow this to happen.

Keep in mind the AACSB has beed around since 1916 and started accrediting programs in 1919 (?). If they haven't made inroads into state requirements by now I doubt they ever will. The for - profit's are getting stronger and schools like Nova Southeastern U would not stand by and do nothing.

If it was tried the uproar from the RA only group would be tremendous. The resultant scrutiny and publicity could work against the AACSB.

 

I think it would be difficult to convince a state to require an AACSB degree for a CPA when the AACSB doesn't require an AACSB degree to teach. I have pointed out in the past here many faculty and deans at AACSB schools that do not have an AACSB degree.

In my brief conversations with AACSB employees by telephone I was told that a RA only Business PhD meets the requirements for teaching at an AACSB school. It is up to the individual schools if they want to insist on AACSB only, which most of them do. This is my major contention with the AACSB schools. If they would be more open to accepting mid-career experienced people with RA only doctorates I would be satisfied and would be a supporter of the AACSB. Hold the RA-only to a higher standard. Require them to take a couple of research-oriented courses to bring them up to par if needed.

But not even giving these people a chance seems unfair to the people holding the degrees and the students that could have benefited from their knowledge.

And after all, isn't quality teaching and preparing the students for the real world what education should be all about?

Just my opinion

 

Isn't this because the HBS name is much more valuable than AACSB accreditation?

 

So, only peons need to know about AACSB, eh.

 

It has often been said that when talking about the Wharton's and Havard's of the world..that AACSB needs them much more than they really need AACSB.

 

Re: Questions on Accreditation?

American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business is the OLD name.

They updated it to the current, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

 

Last night I asked an acquaintance of mine the same thing. He is a graduate of the University of Florida. I got basically the same answer you did. Of course, he is one of those that thinks if you are not a UoF grad you went to an inferior school!

 

I agree. The ACBSP being CHEA may help them to survive but I wonder about IACBE. It seems to me with the rule changes that you mentioned at the AACSB any school that really values professional accredidation should go the AACSB route.

I noticed that some ACBSP schools are now in the process of going AACSB. So perhaps the community colleges and such will be the last basion for the ACBSP and IACBE.

As we discussed before, there is a clear advantage of an AACSB degree if someone wants to teach.

Is there any clear advantage of ACBSP or esp IACBE over a RA only degee insofar as teaching\employment is concerned?

Just my opinion

 

From an employment perspective - probably not. But from a quality of education perspective, I'd argue that ACBSP standards will force business schools to do good things. RA doesn't focus on program specific aspects of a school.

I've lived through both an ACBSP and IACBE visit - IACBE was a cake walk compared to ACBSP.

Regards - Andy

 

A search on monster.com for AACSB yielded two results, a management position at the University of New Mexico, and a directorship at the University of Miami. That's it for an accreditation that's been around since 1906.

 

The one problem that I find with AACSB programs is the GMAT requirement. At 50 years old with 30 years of real world experience I would not sit with a group of youngsters to take a GMAT, in fact I find it a bit insulting. I believe many in there late 30's and up that attend RA only schools may feel the same way. This coupled with the lack of any significance in the business world makes the AACSB accreditation seem little more than a marketing tool.

As far as ABET accreditation goes, yes I want the person designing the plane that I'm on to have an ABET accredited engineering degree, the person running marketing I could care less if his or her degree is AACSB accredited.

 

CHEA

Do a search of jobs at the Chronicle of Higher Education and you will find far more.

 

Re: CHEA

When I went to the Chronicle of Higher Education today I found 37 hits for jobs using "AACSB."

As expected the vast majority were for faculty positions. The rest were academic in one form or other. What I found surprising was for a number of positions the keyword "AACSB" only referred to the school being accredited, not as a requirement for a position. For example, from:

http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/texis/jobs/search

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (AACSB ACCREDITED)

Emphasis mine.....preferred, not required! Good for you CSPU!


Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, JAPAN
Faculty of Foreign Languages and Asian Studies

English Language Faculty

This one was for an English teacher, not a business instructor. Surprising that such an advanced nation as Japan has 0 AACSB accredited schools.


Florida International University: (AACSB ACCREDITED)

Note doesn't say AACSB required like some other schools do.

George Mason University School of Management (AACSB ACCREDITED)

Earned doctorate

Compare to:
University of Houston-Clear Lake makes it clear:

So it seems to me those AACSB schools that only want AACSB state it is required. Other AACSB schools state they prefer it but it is not required and some AACSB schools just want an earned degree.

Interesting!

Just my opinion

 

Carlos - I missed the part of your posting where a business degree holder who earned a non-AACSB degree holds a position at any of these AACSB schools. I have never seen an example to date, and have seen this debate for years..... have you seen an example, if so, please post (I would just be very interested to see ONE!)

I think many bus. schools are hiring outside the business school (such as phyc. for Org. beh, or english for bus. comm.), but they graduated from a non-business school - I have not seen yet a business school non-AACSB school hold a position at an AACSB school (whether they say preferred ot required, the proof is in the pudding).

 

Well most likely you would not sit with anyone but a computer to take the GMAT these days. That does not make your point any less vaild though! The GMAT is a standardized test and there is alot of data that shows this type of test is not an accurate measure of appitude. Esspecially a " nontraditional" student, because they most likley have not taken such a test in many years and like there more traditional counterparts would be expected to spend the same amout of time studying for the test.

To Be fair to AACSB though there are AACSB schools that will waive or not require it for some programs. For Example, Texas A&M-Commerce, will waive GMAT requirements if your GPA is over a 3.0 in the last 60 cr Hours of your under grad and The University of Wyoming's EMBA does not require the GMAT(both Schools are AACSB accrediated).

 

Carlos you must remember the history of ACBSP. ACBSP was created partly because of cost and partly because of the strict rules of AACSB. It made it very difficult for some Liberal Arts colleges. Hence the ACBSP was created. AACSB has recently made there accreditation standards much more lax and correspondingly we are seeing more schools try for accreditation.

 

Try:

http://www.bsu.edu/distinguished/article/0,,18674--,00.html

The Stoops Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship

A Nova Southeastern University DBA is a Stoops Distingushed Professor of Entrepreneurship at AACSB Ball State University.

Imanige that!