The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs

The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a leading specialized accreditation body for business education supporting, celebrating, and rewarding teaching excellence. The association embraces the virtues of teaching excellence and emphasizes to students that it is essential to learn.

ACBSP accredits business, accounting, and business-related programs worldwide. Recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA, USA) in 2001 and again in 2011, ACBSP was the first to offer specialized business accreditation at all degree levels. 
ACBSP’s accreditation process follows the Baldrige model.¹ The accreditation focuses on recognizing teaching excellence, determining student learning outcomes, and a continuous improvement model. ACBSP’s student-centered teaching and learning approach, which is measured and analyzed for quality, ensures that students gain the right skills from their educational investment. Institutions with programs accredited by ACBSP are committed to continuous improvement that ensures their business program will give students the skills employers want. 
Accreditation offers numerous benefits to the educational institution in general and the structural subdivision in particular, as well as to the faculty, staff, students and society.

Benefits for the Institution 
1. The pursuit of accreditation reinforces a commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, and scholarship. 
2. The process of preparing an accreditation self-study enhances the focus on quality of student learning and renews a commitment to the educational mission. 
3. The recognition of effective business units through accreditation contributes to a more positive review by regional accreditors, as specialized accreditation is a confirmation of quality programming in specific divisions. 
4. An accredited status creates greater visibility for the institution. 
5. Accreditation provides prestige and credibility when seeking funding resources from donors, foundations, and governments. 
6. In some states, having an accredited status contributes heavily to performance-based funding. 
7. Accreditation leads to more successful articulation of business credits. 
8. The accredited institution can utilize press releases to advertise their accredited program status. 
9. Accredited status may be printed in the college catalog. 
10. Accredited status may be printed on business cards. 
11. Accredited status may be posted on the college website. 
12. Accreditation provides a sense of pride within the institution.

Benefits for the Business Unit 
1. Accreditation creates a process for continuous departmental improvement. 
2. Accreditation provides the impetus for identifying strengths and weaknesses. 
3. Accreditation keeps business programs current through curriculum development. 
4. Accreditation provides a forum for review and analysis of the business unit. 
5. Accreditation promotes an outcomes assessment process linking goals, activities, and outcomes. 
6. Accreditation creates guidelines for faculty credentials, which leads to higher standards in hiring, increased scholarly and professional activities, and more focused faculty development decisions. 
7. Accreditation creates guidelines when structuring programs. 
8. Accreditation provides a platform to share ideas and to question the status-quo, leading to effective change. 
9. Accreditation is a source of pride among program faculty, staff, and students. 
10. Accreditation validates quality of work in the business unit. 
11. The business unit realizes greater local prestige through accreditation. 
12. Accreditation provides leverage when seeking on-campus resources. 
13. Accredited status leads to a more effective acquisition of technology. 
14. Accreditation status is referenced when submitting budgets, grant proposals, and course or program proposals. 
15. Accredited status assists in recruitment of faculty. 
16. Accreditation activities are communicated to the Board of Trustees. 
17. Accredited status may be printed on Business Division stationery. 
18. Accredited status may be printed on course syllabi. 
19. The certificate of accreditation may be prominently displayed. 
20. Accredited status may be printed on brochures and newsletters.
 
Benefits for Faculty and Staff
1. Accreditation provides a sense of pride within the business faculty and staff. 
2. Faculty members at accredited institutions are provided opportunities to keep current in quality procedures through seminars such as Baldrige training. 
3. Faculty experience a boost of self-esteem when teaching in an accredited business program. 
4. Accreditation provides professional development and leadership opportunities for faculty and administrators in development of outcome assessments and conducting site visits to other institutions.

Benefits for Students 
1. Accreditation creates the impetus for relevancy and currency of faculty, programs, and courses to best serve students. 
2. The pursuit of accreditation enhances the ability to serve students by assuring a focus on quality performance. 
3. Accredited status requires an ongoing effort to provide excellent equipment, software, and learning resources for students. 
4. Accredited status reaffirms the commitment to effective student services. 
5. Students refer to accreditation status on resumes and in employment interviews. 
6. Accredited status provides the ability to host a chapter of Delta Mu Delta or Kappa Beta Delta honorary society, recognizing accomplishments of business students.

Benefits for the Community 
1. Accredited status provides recognition of the ability to serve community stakeholders. 
2. Accreditation creates the impetus for relevancy and currency of faculty, programs, and courses to best serve employers. 
3. External advisory committees acknowledge the importance of accreditation. 
4. External advisory committee members can transfer the accreditation process to their continuous improvement efforts. 
For more information please refer to the official website http://www.acbsp.org.

¹ The Baldrige Excellence Framework includes the criteria for perfor¬mance excellence which represent the following seven core values and con¬cepts: leadership, strategy, customers, workforce, operations, results mea¬surement, analysis, and knowledge management. For more details please refer to http://bit.ly/HED1ba.