‘AACSB stamp is a signal of quality’

We’ve been around a long time, so we have the benefit of longevity. We were started in 1916 and we laid out our first set of accreditation standards in 1919. So we’ve been accrediting business schools for more than 100 years, and, of course, reputationally over the years our work has really served to solidify the fact that when you are AACSB accredited, it is a quality signal to the market.

The first thing I would say is a school needs to have a very good understanding of where they are with regard to the accreditation standards. So we have nine standards.

They’re not highly prescriptive, but the school needs to understand what the standards are asking of them. We do not want to bring schools into the accreditation process which are not ready to do that because it does cost time, effort and energy. So we don’t want people to come in until they ready to demonstrate that they can align with the accreditation standards. If they’re really far away, we would say, OK, you need to work on this area. And when you those gaps are closed a little bit then that’s a better time for you to come in.

So our process is peer driven. That means that it is a peer review team which comes and looks at you to decide if the school is aligned with the standards. It’s not an audit and it’s not heavily compliance oriented. Once you become accredited, then you have a visit every five years.

So it’s not like they’re coming to audit you and define everything that you may be doing wrong. That is not the spirit and intent of the standards. It is that since we are members of a business education community, how can we lift each other up? How can we help each other? How can we demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement that is validated by your peers who come in and do this review and then make a recommendation to continue accreditation. I personally think that’s the value of an AACSB accreditation.

I think of it in terms of cost benefit. I certainly think the benefits outweigh the cost.

You don’t just get the accreditation, which is a very important thing to signal to the world.

But what you also get is a community of people who you can ask questions of, who you can network with, who are all in the same boat. Questions such as: how are you dealing with the enrolment problem? How are you dealing with generative AI? How are you dealing with trying to get qualified faculty? There are all kinds of issues we come together as a community to work on those problems. So you are not alone out there.

We have more than 1,000 schools which are accredited by AACSB at this moment in time. We leverage our network and thought leadership, the research, and the skills and competencies that are in this vast network to lift everyone up. We believe that we are better for having voices at the table and particularly a diversity of voices at the table.

Yes, 21 schools are accredited in India. India is an area that is growing and so I think it’s a market that’s got a lot of possibilities in it. We didn’t accredit our first school outside the US until 1997. We started as an American Association and then in ’97 we became global.

So if I look at, Asia Pacific, we accredited 190 schools in Asia Pacific. We accredited 208 in EMEA and 606 in America, but we have more schools in the process of seeking accreditation outside the US today. That’s because the market has changed and today it’s really about the global growth.

Thirty-three schools are in process in India, apart from the 21 we’ve already activated.

So one of the things that comes with AACSB accreditation is that it’s incredibly well respected around the world; people who are recruiting students from B-schools very well know AACSB. They know that when a student graduates from an AACSB accredited school, their curriculum is current and relevant and timely while their professors are highly qualified. So all these are all part of having an AACSB accreditation. Curriculum must be current, the school must have a clear and focused mission, a strategic plan.

They must be resourced appropriately, so if the school is having trouble getting resources, therecould be problems with their accreditation. The degrees that the school offers business students are quality assured. So what that means is the school defines the competencies that a student is supposed to have when they get a degree in area X.

They then have to assess that and show that and our peer review teams look at that.

Well, they’re all at different places. So the longest a school can stay in the process is seven years with a couple of exceptions. It takes somewhere around six years to go through the process and become accredited, which includes having their accreditation visit and it takes about a year to get that visit set up.