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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on February 21, 2000. Accreditation key for business programsBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to The Post and Courier Business Major Over the past 45 years, as the number of schools, colleges, and programs of business administration have multiplied rapidly, the MBA degree has become one of the most desirable professional credentials. Given the multiplicity of available programs, what standards should the prospective student use in making a choice among institutions? A good starting point for anyone considering graduate education in business is to examine program accreditation. The gold standard is accreditation by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools and Colleges of Business Administration. Founded in 1916, the nonprofit organization has approximately 900 member universities, colleges and professional organizations. The 1999 edition of Barrons Guide to Graduate Business Schools says, "One very good yardstick to measure the quality of a graduate business school is to determine whether it is accredited by AACSB." Of the nearly 800 institutions offering the MBA and equivalent or higher degrees, some 346 are AACSB-accredited. Obtaining AACSB accreditation is a demanding process. Colleges, universities and the business schools or departments within them must set goals, prepare and articulate carefully defined missions for each part of the business program, and implement strategic plans for achieving the goals they define. They must explain how the recruitment and development of faculty, selection of students, organization of the curriculum, and the standards for measuring performance prepare students for useful and productive lives. Seeking accreditation takes from one to five years of program development, and an AACSB-appointed program adviser continuously monitors the process. Only after this process is completed is the institution eligible to submit a letter of intention and be allowed to formally enter into candidacy. Gaining AACSB accreditation requires a commitment to quality teaching in the form of an institutional promise to provide the necessary resources to support a wide range of activities that develop faculty credentials. Faculty recruitment should produce an appropriate blend of academic and professional qualifications. In some disciplines, the hiring process is competitive. The institution must be continuously dedicated to faculty intellectual development, and faculty credentials should be visible in the form of peer-reviewed research. The key to delivering high quality, says AACSB, lies in the composition, qualifications and continuous development of the faculty. An emphasis on faculty intellectual development is probably the most important item in the accreditation process. "As a central activity of a business school or program," says the AACSB, "the instructional program must be effective." Student learning depends on the quality of instruction. The best guarantee of high quality across faculty, said a 1987 report of the AACSB Task Force, was to ensure that faculty remained intellectually alive through involvement in research. This research should be written, say something new and meet the test of scrutiny and criticism by one's peers. It should also be readily available. At the graduate level, the AACSB has said, there is no such thing as good teaching without such research. Policies for recruiting, evaluating, promoting and awarding tenure to faculty should reflect this. This is only the beginning. MBA programs should select students carefully, "and make continuous efforts to achieve demographic diversity" in student enrollment. Programs also should provide students with a professional perspective and maintain high, but achievable, standards. The curriculum should include all the core areas, including finance, marketing, management, production, organizational makeup and behavior, communications, quantitative analysis and computer usage, and the domestic and global economic environments. Course offerings should also provide opportunities for specialization. Classrooms should include participatory environments and varied instructional approaches. Are there differences between AACSB-accredited and non-AACSB institutions? A number of studies have found several, the most important being the fewer number of courses faculty were required to teach at AACSB-accredited schools, leaving more time for specialization, greater faculty research productivity at these institutions, and career environments that reflected an institutional emphasis on continuing faculty intellectual activity. All of these are cost items. The benefits of AACSB accreditation are many. Students benefit by the assurance their program of study satisfies the highest criteria established in the field of business education. Employers benefit by the assurance that graduates have completed a program where the content and quality are under continuous internal and external evaluation. Listings of AACSB-accredited institutions and more information are available at the Web site aacsb.edu. AACSB-accredited graduate programs in South Carolina include The Citadel (MBA), Clemson University (MBA, Ph.D.), Coastal Carolina University (Cooperative MBA with Winthrop), Francis Marion University (MBA), the University of South Carolina (MBA, Ph.D.), and Winthrop University (MBA). Accredited undergraduate programs at institutions that do not offer the MBA include The College of Charleston and USC-Spartanburg. Dorothy P. Moore is a professor of entrepreneurship at The Citadel. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact moored@citadel.edu. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |