Accreditation FAQs
Membership, however, does not denote AACSB Accreditation and should not be interpreted as achieving accreditation. Accreditation is granted only to those institutions which have undergone a lengthy peer review process and been found to satisfy the Guiding Principles and Standards for accreditation.
Earning AACSB Accreditation is a significant accomplishment, and we encourage you to promote your achievement—in print, on your institution's website, and around campus.
AACSB staff members approve common exclusion requests. However, questionable program exclusion requests will be forwarded to the appropriate operating committee (IAC, CIRC, AAC).
In contrast to institutional accreditation, schools may apply as a single academic unit within a larger institution offering business and management degree programs. Business academic units that would like to enter the accreditation process as the unit of accreditation must submit a Unit of Accreditation Application for review and approval by the Initial Accreditation Committee (IAC). This application must be approved prior to the submission of the eligibility application. More in-depth information on the unit of accreditation can be found here.
Basis for Judgment
2.2 Virtual Resources
- The school provides infrastructure to support its instructional activities for all modalities.
- Faculty have access to sufficient current and emerging technologies for both teaching and research purposes consistent with their mission, strategies, and expected outcomes. Such access may be realized through partnerships with other schools or other third parties.
- Professional staff are provided adequate training and technology infrastructure for advising, career placement, and other mission-specific activities.
Schools can identify these groups themselves or use DataDirect to assist in their efforts. You can find DataDirect FAQs and online tutorials here.
Please be aware of unauthorized AI GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers) impersonating AACSB International, using our logo, and offering advice under false pretenses. These impostor GPTs are not endorsed by or affiliated with AACSB. They pose significant risks to your data security and may not provide accurate advice.
Any GPT created and published by AACSB International will:
- Be clearly identified within the GPT as the official GPT for AACSB.
- Be accessed from the AACSB website.
- Include a designated contact person to address any questions or concerns you may have.
- Be fully compliant with AACSB privacy and security policies.
If you encounter a suspicious GPT claiming to represent AACSB, please report it to [email protected] immediately.
The first step in the accreditation process is to establish membership with AACSB. To apply for membership, please complete our online membership application. Additional details about membership are available at aacsb.edu/membership/educational. The AACSB membership team can be reached at [email protected].
Once membership is established, a school should familiarize its faculty and administration with the AACSB accreditation standards and the accreditation journey. To proceed into the accreditation process, the school should attend a mandatory Eligibility application (EA) Workshop to assess its accreditation readiness and better prepare for the accreditation journey. The schedule for the EA Workshop is found here: Eligibility Application Workshop. Participants have up to two years from the date of the EA Workshop to submit their eligibility application. After two years, the school will need to attend another EA Workshop to be eligible to apply.
Eligibility applications are accepted at any time. Schools are encouraged to attend a regularly scheduled Q&A session complimentary for workshop attendees where AACSB staff are available to address questions on their eligibility application. Once the eligibility application is complete and submitted to the Eligibility Review Committee (ERC), AACSB staff will check for completeness and any potential concerns. The ERC will review the application at the next scheduled meeting. Meeting dates and applicable deadlines are available here.
Eligibility applications are due to the committee at least two months in advance of the meeting. If approved, a mentor will be assigned to help guide the school through the initial accreditation process.
Many schools find it useful to send their staff to the Business Accreditation Seminar, which offers an in-depth overview of the initial accreditation process and the nine business accreditation standards. Additionally, the small group allows for detailed conversation and specific questions related to each school’s situation, as well as comprehension of the overall process requirements.
To help in cases where team members do not speak the language spoken at the school, it is common for the school to have a translator either present for the entire visit or parts of the visit in which participants do not speak English.
All formal complaints must be submitted through AACSB’s official online complaint form (submissions via email are not accepted): https://aacsb.jotform.com/260695802609060
AACSB’s complaint policy, including full details on the process and requirements, is available on page 36 of the Accreditation Policies and Procedures Handbook located here.
All complaints should:
- Identify the complainant and their relationship with the institution;
- Identify the relevant AACSB guiding principle(s) and/or accreditation standard(s) and describe the lack of alignment;
- Provide supporting documentation, including (if applicable) evidence of the complaint being pursued through the institution’s internal channels and the outcome;
- Identify the timeframe during which the incident or concern occurred.
If you have questions after reviewing the form and policy, you may contact us for general guidance at [email protected].
The accreditation standards are available here.No, there is not a specific structure that needs to be followed. The school determines the best format to meet their needs. It is advisable to refer to the standard's basis for judgement, and the plan should project resource requirements (or targets) and define anticipated actions and an applicable timeline.
The assurance of learning process is designed to ensure systematic continuous improvement of curriculum. Peer review teams will seek evidence that shows competencies for each degree program are in place. The standard does not describe what a school must do to have a “mature” AoL system. While a robust AoL system will have multiple competency goals for each degree program, AACSB does not prescribe an optimal number of competencies for a given degree program. Typically, schools will close the loop at least once in their accreditation cycle for each competency. AACSB interprets closing the loop to mean that a school shows how curriculum was improved as a result of the assurance of learning process. Results of the assessment should be documented and available for peer review teams upon request. The assessment processes and results should lead to documented continuous improvement in curriculum. Table 5-1 is mandatory for schools in the initial accreditation process and optional for schools completing their CIR report. However, all schools are encouraged to complete Table 5-1 as it presents assurance of learning data in an organized and standardized way for the benefit of the school and peer review team.
How often should a school review its learning competencies for each program?
There is no prescribed time frame for reviewing learning competencies. Schools are expected to have a systematic and sustainable way of reviewing curriculum as well as the assurance of learning process. As mentioned above, normally, schools “close the loop” at least once in their accreditation cycle for each competency goal. AACSB interprets closing the loop to mean that a school shows how curriculum was improved as a result of the assurance of learning process. Specifically, data from a second measure allows faculty, a peer review team, or other engaged stakeholders, to judge whether the curriculum improvements that were driven by the first round of data/results have been effective in helping students learn and/or perform better.
Must all students be assessed?
Assessment data collected from valid statistical samples of student work is acceptable to support conclusions about learning outcomes and identification of areas for improvement. Sample characteristics should be established to provide a high degree of confidence that the data are representative, valid, and reliable.
What is the minimum performance standard?
AACSB does not have a prescribed standard. The goal or benchmark for overall student performance on any given learning competency should be determined by each school consistent with its mission, degree programs, and student profile. This performance level provides a basis to determine if the collective student performance on any given learning competency is acceptable or unacceptable. If performance is unacceptable, curricula change should follow to address the problem.
Must all graduates meet the expected standard on all learning goals?
No, but the learning goals do represent the intentions of the faculty for every student. If students are not achieving the learning goals at acceptable levels, action must be taken to strengthen the curriculum for future students.
How many competency goals are needed?
The standards do not prescribe the number of learning goals a school must define for each degree program. Many schools specify 4-10 learning goals for each degree program. There is no limit, but this is guidance in order to keep the assessment program manageable.
The standards state that if five percent or more of total annual resources come from executive education, the school should have a process to ensure high quality and continuous improvement. Could you provide a definition of annual resources? Does this include state funds, profit centers within the college (i.e. executive ed, research bureau)?
There is some flexibility in this standard. Some schools with less than 5 percent of their resources coming from executive education may choose to include it within their scope. The 5 percent is of the total annual resources including all sources of funding, even endowments. The expectation is that a school that includes executive education in its review will present a portfolio of executive education programs and describe how the portfolio is aligned with the school’s mission and strategy. The school should also provide a narrative discussing how the school ensures high-quality processes and outcomes in its executive education offerings.
In addition to public disclosure information required by national or regional accreditors, schools are expected to provide readily accessible, reliable, and easily understandable information to the public on the performance of their business students, including learner achievement information and overall program quality, as determined by the school. Disclosures are not prescriptive but are informed by the school’s mission, strategies, and expected outcomes, and may include post-graduate learner success outcomes, admission data, retention and time-to-degree data, placement data, or other mission-specific outcomes. This information should be available on the accredited unit’s website where it is clearly displayed and distinguishable from university amalgamated data.
What are the AACSB standards for MBA/executive MBA candidates who have not earned a bachelor's degree?
Standard 6: Learner Progression articulates a general expectation from AACSB’s view point that students admitted into graduate programs will have earned a bachelor’s degree. However, the school may choose to allow exceptions, but it should be prepared to demonstrate how these exceptions support quality and align with the school’s mission.
Editing or adding columns is not recommended. If a school wants to provide further explanation, we suggest footnoting the item in question and providing additional information elsewhere.
Are all faculty intellectual contributions or just participating faculty ICs to be included on Table 8-1?
All intellectual contributions being produced by faculty contributing to the mission of the business school should be included on Table 8-1, including those that are being produced by Supporting faculty (if applicable).
In Table 8-1, how are co-authored intellectual contributions properly reflected?
In Table 8-1 co-authored intellectual contributions would be fractionally apportioned for co-authors at the same institution from business disciplines so as not to double-count the article in the table. For example, professor X in Accounting and professor Y in Finance co-author a peer-reviewed journal article. Each professor would get .5 allocation for that co-authored piece. When considering co-authored publications between an author from a business discipline and an author outside of a business discipline, the author from the business discipline who would be included in Table 8-1 would get 1 allocation. For example, professor M in Marketing and professor N in Psychology co-author a peer-reviewed journal article. Professor M would get 1 allocation for the piece and his/her contribution would be included in table 8-1.
On Table 8-1, should we include intellectual contributions from faculty that have left during the reporting period?
Intellectual contributions from faculty that left the school during the reporting period (i.e. year of record) may be counted in Table 8-1. However, if the faculty left prior to the reporting period (e.g. in year 3), then their intellectual contributions would not be included in Table 8-1.
In Standard 8, does the "Portfolio of IC's" in sum have to be the same as the sum of the "Types of IC's"?
Yes, the sum for each overall category (Portfolio of ICs and Types of Intellectual Contributions) should equal each other. The specific types of intellectual contributions would be extracted from the Portfolio of ICs (Basic or Discovery Scholarship; Applied or Integration/Application Scholarship; and Teaching and Learning Scholarship).
Is the production of new chapters and substantial revision of chapters in new editions sufficient to classify a faculty member as scholarly practitioner?
A case could be made for this as the activities are current, sustained, and substantive so long as the school’s criteria, in keeping with its mission, allow for this type of scholarly activity. Classifying an unbalanced number of faculty members with the activities described as SP could impact the school's ability to align with standard 8.
- Branding
- External Market Perception
Explanations of each criterion along with additional information on the differences between institutional accreditation and unit accreditation can also be found here.
The school will also be required to incur all travel costs of the mentor (mentor will visit at least once, often more) and typically three peer review team members for the peer review team visit. Often the peer review team chair will visit the school once before the visit (although not required) and then a three person team will visit the school for the review. In the case of a deferral, the school will need to have a second visit, with two team members. It is difficult to estimate these travel costs, as they will depend on the distance the members of the team have to travel and the number of visits they make to the school. Learn more about AACSB travel policy and expenses.
Learn more about AACSB membership dues.
Log in to your myAACSB account to process payments. All major credit cards are accepted.
You may also contact Accounts Receivable at +1 813 769 6534. If you must call, please be prepared to provide:
Name on the card, credit card number, expiration date, billing zip code, amount, and invoice number.
DO NOT EMAIL YOUR CARDHOLDER INFORMATION
ACH Direct Deposit (for U.S. and Canada ACH deposits only) and International Wire Transfers
Please see the remittance section at the bottom of your invoice, or contact Accounts Receivable at +1 813.769.6523
Lockbox (U.S. Currency)
AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Lockbox 1143
P.O. Box 95000
Philadelphia, PA 19195-1143 USA
However, if the student-faculty interaction is primarily with the facilitator/tutor and the facilitator/tutor is responsible for other teaching activities, then the school would be expected to include these facilitators/tutors. While each situation is unique, and each case will be looked at individually, we encourage schools to research comparable schools that may have implemented a similar faculty model.
A supporting faculty member does not normally participate in the intellectual or operational life of the school beyond the direct performance of teaching responsibilities. Usually, a supporting faculty member does not have deliberative or involvement rights on faculty issues, membership on faculty committees, or assigned responsibilities beyond direct teaching functions (e.g., classroom and office hours). Classification as a supporting faculty member does not rely on the person’s contractual status with the institution.
Schools are expected to develop criteria for documenting faculty members as "participating" or "supporting". Criteria should be consistent with each schools’ mission, expected outcomes, and strategies.