A specially appointed Board subcommittee recently received the green light from the AACSB Board of Directors to pursue the possibility of AACSB providing recognition for management education delivered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and other non-degree management education, including corporate education.

The action is the result of talks over the last six months between AACSB and the DOD on its "Defense Leadership and Management Program" (DLAMP). DOD is interested in obtaining AACSB recognition of DLAMP that would connote overall high quality consistent with that of an AACSB accredited institution. It is intended that this recognition would assist the top 3,000 civilian employees invited into DLAMP, and who subsequently complete the program, by making it easier to transfer program units into an accredited MBA program. At its November meeting, the AACSB Board approved the continuation of these talks and appointed a Subcommittee on Credit/Non-Degree Programs to guide this and similar activities.

In an interim report to the Board in April, the subcommittee, chaired by University of Louisville business dean Robert L. Taylor, proposed a number of study groups to investigate the DOD program, a corporate university, an "alliance" arrangement between a school and a corporation, and a for-profit provider. The goal is to look at the various processes, using the accreditation standards as a broad guideline of areas for review, and to determine if AACSB involvement would add value. The group will report its findings at the March 1999 Board meeting.

While management education delivered within the Department of Defense is the specific case under consideration, the initiative raises fundamental strategic and structural issues for AACSB. "Provision of a recognition function for non-degree education introduces the possibility of a new relationship with corporate members," said Milton R. Blood, AACSB director of accreditation. "Those corporations with corporate universities could apply for review of their management education activities. It also would create a new dynamic for AACSB accredited educational institutions that have established alliances with corporate universities."

The initiative comes at a time when partnerships between schools and industry and the forming of corporate universities are on the rise. According to the "1998 Survey of Corporate University Future Directions," conducted by Corporate University Xchange, Inc., more than 40 percent of corporate universities surveyed plan to grant degrees in partnership with accredited institutions of higher education. These degree programs primarily are at the graduate level in business administration, computer science, engineering and finance. Some corporate universities already have expressed interest in undergoing review by AACSB.

"For AACSB, this initiative would define the organization as one that is concerned with the quality of management education wherever it occurs, regardless of whether it is within a traditional academic institution," said Taylor. "Structurally, adding this service might require the development of a council parallel to the current Accreditation Council that would include those management education providers that achieve this new recognition status."

Since a decision to add the new service to AACSB's offerings would have fundamental implications for the definition of the organization, the Board has called for ongoing consultation throughout the membership, including discussions at regional meetings and at other opportunities during the year.

If, at its March 1999 meeting, the Board approves proceeding with the activity, there would be a vote of the Accreditation Council and/or the membership at the April 1999 Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Before the vote, development would take place on the recognition standards and on the implementation processes that would be used to provide the new service.