Small-school accreditation the business of ACBSP - Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 23, 1997 by Harold W. Lundy

Dear Editor:

The articles written by Cheryl

Fields only present one perspective of "Taking Care of Business at HBCUs" (Dec. 12, 1996). There is another specialized accrediting association for business schools and programs besides the the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

There are approximately 2,400 institutions of higher education that have business programs in the five traditional fields of business education -- accounting, business administration, finance, management, and marketing. The institutions may also have specialized areas of study -- such as human resources management, management information systems, and public administration -- which are a part of a business academic unit and considered as business-related curricula. Approximately half of these institutions are two-year colleges and the other half are four-year schools, some of which have graduate programs.

Business education as a professional field of study is four times as large as the next largest professional field which is teacher education.

In 1988, only 260 of those 2,400 institutions had their business schools and programs accredited and the process was administered by only one organization. Many of the remaining 2,140 institutions felt that an alternative organization should he created to satisfy the business accreditation needs of their institutions. Most of these 2,140 institutions had (and still have) student-oriented excellence in teaching as their primary objective, as opposed to a heavy emphasis on research. They wanted an accrediting organization that had this same emphasis reflected in its accreditation standards.

Hence, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), a new accrediting organization, was created with its primary emphasis directed towards fostering excellence in teaching. ACBSP was also founded to help institutions improve the quality and integrity of business education.

What constitutes the difference between these two accreditation groups? ACBSP, which has maintained since its inception that it should complement AACSB, views its market niche as business schools and programs offered by the mid-size and small institutions, as well as the community and junior colleges. AACSB does not accredit associate degree programs.

Requirements that academically qualified faculty hold terminal degrees in their teaching field and the discounting of certain types of scholarly and professional activity have made it virtually impossible for many small-size, quality institutions to gain AACSB accreditation. The organization's standards have contained provisions that have made transfer of credits extremely difficult, particularly from community/ junior colleges and unaccredited institutions. AACSB has primarily accredited doctoral granting and large to mid-size programs with a significant emphasis on research.

ACBSP exists to address the unmet needs of institutions which were not served by AACSB. ACBSP stresses articulation and transfer policy statements that facilitate the acceptance of community college credits. It is committed to meeting the needs of business schools and programs offered by mid-size and small institutions, as well as community and junior colleges.

Since most, if not all, of the historically and predominantly Black colleges and universities fall into this range, ACBSP is committed to addressing the needs of these institutions of business education. The experiences gained and lessons learned from working with institutions can easily be applied to all other small to mid-size institutions throughout the United States.

Because of previous and current propensities and priorities of AACSB, the leadership of HBCUs were convinced that their business programs were too small to even achieve accreditation. Moreover, the HBCUs had to deal with what ACBSP believes is a "rebuttal presumption": Unaccredited business programs lack quality and integrity. ACBSP believes that accrediting organizations are to provide an external validation of the extent to which quality and integrity exists or does not exist in a school of business or program. This approach requires ACBSP program evaluators to make the assumption that some basic quality and integrity existed before they visited the campus. The extent to which that quality and integrity exists is ascertained by determining whether or not the school of business or program meets the association's twenty-six standards.

Additionally, ACBSP believes that accreditation should not be viewed as an event but rather as an integral part of the commitment of business educators to the continued improvement of their business schools and programs, and to the pursuit of excellence in all that is done to prepare graduates to compete in a dynamic, ever-changing global economy. Accreditation is a natural and logical step in the process of continual improvement whereby programs in business education are strengthened annually.

ACBSP is particularly interested in providing assistance to historically and predominantly Black colleges and universities in developing plans to achieve the association's twenty-six standards of quality. As the association builds an awareness of the standards of quality and what constitutes excellence in business higher education, it is expected that most of the historically and predominantly Black colleges and universities will eventually complete their plans for obtaining accreditation by ACBSP. The accreditation process of ACBSP presents a proven way to demonstrate how to implement a plan for quality improvement and enhancement