When it comes to selecting a college or university for an education in business administration, no criterion is more important than the institution's accreditation. It overshadows tuition cost, school location, campus life, size of the library, student-faculty ratio and a myriad of other factors.
Simply stated, an unaccredited school is nothing more than a diploma mill. You will be wasting your time and money by attending such an institution. Further, you will be perpetrating a fraud on your employer, your associates and your friends if you obtain a degree from an unaccredited school and then pretend it is legitimate.
Accreditation is a two-step affair. First, the instution must have an "overall" accreditation by one of the six recognized accrediting associations in the United States. Second, the specific academic program must be professionally accredited. One without the other is insufficient.
The professional accrediting body for schools that offer BSBA, MBA and MS (management) degrees is the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, often referred to as AACSB.
AACSB is a not-for-profit association headquartered in Tampa, Florida. The organization was formed in 1916 by a consortium of 16 large universities, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Today, 549 colleges and universities are members of AACSB and have been accredited in business administration. Of these, 167 have a second AACSB accreditation in accounting.
AACSB accreditation is open to both large universities and small colleges. The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, for example, with 42,728 students, has both business administration and accounting accreditations from AACSB. However, tiny Drake University in DeMoines, Iowa, with a total student body of just over 5,200 has also met the same standards.
Computer giant Intel Corporation and many other employers refuse to reimburse employees who take courses at business schools that lack AACSB accreditation. Further, graduate courses taken at a non-accredited school will not transfer to an approved institution.
Ask school representatives if their business programs have both regional and professional accreditations. If they do not, keep looking.
While exploring local options for a suitable MBA program, I have noticed that many of my options site accreditation from the ACBSP. In my community, these schools have prestige. I am talking about schools such as Lipscomb University, and Cumberland University. What is the difference between the AACSB and the ACBSP, and does this accreditation mean that an MBA from these institutions would be worthless?
Posted by: Anonymous | August 29, 2007 1:58 PM | Permalink to Comment