The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), the world’s largest business education alliance of over 1,700 member organizations in over 100 countries and territories, connecting educators, learners, and business to create the next generation of great leaders, has announced that 48 business schools have extended their accreditation in business, one has extended its accreditation in accounting, and seven have extended their accreditation in both business and accounting. In addition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has earned initial accreditation in accounting.
For more than a century, AACSB accreditation has been synonymous with the highest standards in business education and has been earned by only 5% of the world’s schools offering business degrees at the bachelor’s level or higher. Today, 862 institutions across 56 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation, while 189 institutions hold supplemental AACSB accreditation for their accounting programs.
“AACSB congratulates each institution on their achievement,” said Stephanie M. Bryant, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB. “Every AACSB-accredited school has demonstrated a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning. The intense peer-review process exemplifies their commitment to quality business education.”
Achieving accreditation is a process of rigorous internal focus, engagement with an AACSB-assigned mentor, and peer-reviewed evaluation. During this multiyear path, schools focus on developing and implementing a plan to align with AACSB’s accreditation standards. These standards require excellence in areas relating to strategic management and innovation; student, faculty, and staff as active participants; learning and teaching; and academic and professional engagement.
To achieve accounting accreditation, an institution must first earn AACSB business accreditation. Then, in addition to developing and implementing a mission-driven plan to satisfy the business accreditation quality standards, accounting accreditation requires the satisfaction of a supplemental set of standards specific to the discipline and profession of accounting. Once accreditation is achieved, each institution participates in a five-year continuous improvement peer-review to maintain high quality and extend its accreditation.