If you have been on campus much over the past semester I am sure that you have heard murmurs about the mysterious five letter acronym: AACSB. This topic has generated a lot of questions and curiosity within our student body, and hopefully this article will be able to answer some of those questions and give you a much better understanding of why it is vital for our success that we all be on the same page during this important process.

Allow me to begin by explaining what AACSB is. AACSB stands for Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and is an internationally recognized accrediting program. This means that if AACSB recognizes your business school then anywhere you go the value of your degree will be considered reputable. At this time the stamp of AACSB represents the “highest standard of achievement for business schools, worldwide.” As you might be able to conclude this is very important to our institution and for us as individuals who are looking to compete against other MBAs for top positions after graduation.

A common misunderstanding is that this Accreditation is strictly for the IMBA or the IIM. This is not the case; it is an accreditation for the entire College of Management. The College of Management is actually made up of ten departments which include the: Department of Accounting, Department of Finance and Banking, Department of Transportation, Institute of Information Management, Institute of International Business, the EMBA Program, etc. It is therefore not solely in our hands to get accredited, but will also depend on the other departments. It is however important that we all know what is going on and promote this among the students from other programs.

Now for the information on the general process of AACSB accreditation: The first step is to become a member of AACSB (which our college became 2006) this means that the school is recognized by the organization but does not yet officially have the Accreditation. From the time of membership the school employs a “mentor,” or basically a consultant whose responsibility is to help critique the college so that they are sure to receive accreditation. The basic application process consists of the school compiling an “Accreditation Plan” which outlines the entire College of Management from the individual programs to the individual policies and procedures. Once this plan is submitted and has passed the (normally multiple) revisions requested by AACSB the school is evaluated in person by the IAC (International Accreditation Committee). Once the evaluation committee comes the b-school will either need to make appropriate changes and have a re-evaluation (generally a few years later) or they will be approved and the school will enter a 5-year period with annual evaluations that ensure the school is making progress towards becoming a well established business school. Once the school enters this 5-year period it is considered accredited and we can put this on our resumes.

As of now, four universities in Taiwan have received accreditation and entered the 5-year process: Fu Jen Catholic University, National Chengchi University, National Chiao-Tung University, and National Sun Yat-sen University. If we work hard NCKU can be the fifth.

Right now our College has submitted the Accreditation Plan, we have received our feedback and made our revisions. On May 14, 2008 our mentor will visit our school for a check-up with feedback and if things go well we will have the evaluation committee come in the fall for the final evaluation which will determine whether we need to wait a couple years for a re-evaluation or if we can enter the 5-year process. These final two steps are crucial for our accreditation and will require unity within the student body. During these visits, students will be interviewed and asked about the program, their opinions of the functions as well as simple things like what the vision of our department is.

How do we stand? The College of Management has an accomplished faculty and student body. As long as the efforts are supported by everyone it should be a success. A key point is it needs to be supported and the students need to be just as aware of the process as the faculty is. So here is the general plan. The Student Council is currently working on a marketing campaign for the entire college, we have written new mission and vision statements that are condensed and accurately represent what the goals of the school are so they should be easier to memorize. We will be handing out bookmarks with these statements on them to help prepare the students for the evaluation committee. We need everyone to be aware of the goals of the program as well as know what is happening with AACSB (hence this article). We have helped with editing and revising many of the submitted documents for English as well as prepared budgets proposals and things for funding this process from NCKU. Before the evaluation committee comes we will hold a large meeting preparing a pool of dedicated people that are willing to volunteer to meet with the IAC and do their best to leave a positive impression.

The Student Council believes that in this process it will be our own determination and professionalism that will help push the College through to accreditation. The great thing about this is that our drive for excellence will not only improve our chances for accreditation, but improve our program as well. Because this accreditation is one of the most important things that we can gain we hope that we can work together to get this process completed prior to our graduation. We have only a short time to unite our efforts and make our program something we are truly proud of.

We must be able to look at an evaluator and tell them that our program is great and is constantly improving all of the time.

Please spread the word, direct people to this article and let’s make an accreditation movement.

This post was submitted by phil.