The Latest Business Schools to Acquire AACSB Accreditation

Eight business schools in six countries won highly coveted accreditation this week by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

In a statement Wednesday, AACSB International said it awarded accreditation in business to Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates; Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan; the New York Institute of Technology in the US; and the University of Leeds in the UK, as well as three schools in China: Dalian University of Technology, Lingnan (University) College at Sun Yat-sen University, and the University of Science and Technology of China.

727 institutions now hold AACSB accreditation in business

AACSB accreditation is considered the gold standard of business school accreditation.  Of the thousands of schools worldwide offering graduate and undergraduate business programs, only 727 institutions in 48 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation, and only 182 schools have received accreditation for their accounting programs.

Robert D. Reid, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer at AACSB, said accreditation is a multi-year peer-review process that requires schools to show alignment with 15 global accreditation standards in four areas: strategic management and innovation, learning and teaching, academic and professional engagement, and students, faculty and staff:

“AACSB accreditation is a globally recognized standard for the highest quality in business education,” Reid said. “Schools that have achieved accreditation demonstrate their ongoing commitment to excellence by participating in a continuous improvement review process every five years.”

In 2014, AACSB accreditation in business or accounting was awarded for the first time to 31 institutions, and accreditation was extended for another 137.  New accreditation went to institutions in Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, UK and US.

Along with the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Foundation for Management Development’s Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), AACSB is one leg of the so-called 'triple crown' of business school accreditation, an honor shared by only a few dozen business schools worldwide, of which most are based in Europe.