Touro and AACSB....again!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by DCross, May 1, 2003.

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  1. DCross

    DCross New Member

    This is an email from another forum: Does it show a stronger chance for Touro to get AACSB?


    Interesting article from the Chronicle this week on
    AASCB accreditation:

    Business-School Accrediting Group Adopts New
    Standards, Providing More Leeway on Faculty
    Qualifications
    By KATHERINE S. MANGAN

    New Orleans

    Business schools will have more flexibility to
    determine who is qualified to teach, but also a new
    burden of proving what students have learned, under
    new accreditation standards approved on Friday.

    The revised standards were the featured attraction at
    the annual meeting of AACSB International: The
    Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business,
    which drew 1,200 participants from 40 countries. The
    standards were approved overwhelmingly, by a voice
    vote, despite concerns by some educators that the
    association had watered them down in order to
    accommodate the growing number of foreign business
    schools seeking accreditation.

    Many of those business schools -- which like others in
    the association offer both undergraduate and graduate
    programs -- use more part-time professors than would
    be allowed under current accreditation standards.

    Among the major changes:


    Instead of prescribing how many full-time, or
    doctorally-trained, professors a business school must
    have, the new standards require schools to prove that
    at least three-quarters of the program is taught by
    faculty members who actively participate in students'
    education. A part-time instructor who advises students
    outside the class and serves on committees could
    qualify as a "participating" faculty member, while an
    adjunct who simply shows up to teach a class would
    not. Under the old standards, at least 75 percent of
    instruction had to be offered by full-time professors,
    most of whom were expected to have doctorates.

    Business schools will be reviewed every 5 years
    instead of every 10, but the process will involve less
    time and paperwork. The new version has 21 standards
    instead of 41.

    Business schools will have to set goals for what they
    want their students to learn, and then create ways of
    measuring whether they've succeed. The new standards
    leave it up to each institution to decide what those
    goals should be and how they should be measured.

    "Your curriculum should be unique to your
    institution," said Jerry E. Trapnell, chairman of the
    association and dean of the Clemson University College
    of Business and Behavioral Science. "The AACSB isn't
    going to be the ogre or the hammer."

    But some business deans weren't comfortable being
    given so much leeway. "I get the sense that you're
    softening your standards," said James A. Schweikart,
    dean of a three-year-old business school at Rhode
    Island College. He plans to eventually seek
    accreditation for his program, but would like to
    strengthen it first. He worries that when he asks the
    college administration for more money to hire
    professors with doctorates, he'll have a hard time
    making his case if the association no longer requires
    it for accreditation.

    "The tendency, during these times of budget cuts, is
    to take the cheapest route possible," he said, adding,
    "I need a club, not a stick."

    Diane Schooley-Pettis, associate business dean at
    Boise State University, worried that, by eliminating
    the requirement that business schools maintain a set
    ratio of full-time faculty members to students, the
    association might tempt financially strapped
    institutions to increase class sizes.

    The association's director of accreditation, Milton R.
    Blood, insisted that even though the new standards
    give business schools more flexibility in hiring, the
    standards are actually tougher than the old ones.

    "Instead of just looking at whether faculty members
    are full-time or part-time, we want to know how
    engaged they are in the life of the school," said Mr.
    Blood.

    The revised standards will also help schools that are
    struggling to recruit enough faculty members with
    doctorates, he added. While the demand for business
    education continues to rise, the number of students
    pursuing business doctorates dropped 19 percent from
    1994-1995 to 1999-2000.

    Not only should business schools be free to rely more
    on part-timers, but they should have the freedom to
    design their own curriculums, association officials
    said. Some business professors would like to see an
    exception in the case of ethics, to require a
    stand-alone course on that topic, but the new
    standards don't require such a course.

    Instead, they list ethics as a topic that should be
    prominent in business courses, and they encourage
    business schools to develop a code of ethical conduct
    for professors and students (The Chronicle, January
    8).

    One of the underlying goals of the new standards is to
    give business schools around the world the flexibility
    to design programs that match their missions, and not
    to force them to conform to an outdated American
    model.

    The number of foreign business schools seeking
    accreditation has grown substantially since the
    association began accrediting schools outside of North
    America in 1997. Currently, 45 of the 451 business
    schools accredited by the association are based
    outside the United States, and about 80 more are
    seeking accreditation.

    James T. Wright, dean of business at the University of
    São Paulo, in Brazil, said the more flexible standards
    would allow foreign business schools with different
    hiring practices to gain accreditation.

    "We hire a lot of practitioners as part-time
    professors to team teach with academically-qualified
    professors," he said. "The new standards recognize
    that there are a lot of different ways that you can
    achieve the same results without losing rigor or
    quality."
     
  2. Han

    Han New Member

    I think that this may help, but they will still have to go through the entire process and we won't see awarding of accreditation for at least 3-4 years.

    My question is - for schools already accredited who received there accreditation on full vs part time staff, will these standards be re-evaulated?

    It seems qualitative rather than quanititative, so the debate is just starting!
     
  3. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    This is exactly what I had heard from the Dean at NSU business school in December. The question will come in the implementation. Schools like Touro and NSU may be able to achieve AACSB - but no one knows for sure exactly how much "participation" will be required out of faculty.

    Regards - Andy

     

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