The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International announced the release of its new accreditation standards for business schools in order to better satisfy the demands of business students, their future employers and the societies they serve.
The new accreditation standards were developed and chosen by a massive collaboration of more than 700 business schools worldwide. AACSB International, the world’s leading accrediting body for business schools, had not updated their learning standards since 2003. It says the new standards mark a “new era” in business management education.
The purpose of the new standards is to help business school students catch up with the latest ethical standards in the corporate environment. The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) said that the ethical standards in the business environment today are due to increasing regulations and the increasing complexity in business operations. According to CEB research, businesses that focus on building an ethical company culture enjoy higher returns and much lower levels of business misconduct.
A big impetus for making changes in business school education is to ensure that it is relevant to society. In the release, Joseph DiAngelo, chair of the AACSB Board of Directors, talked about the goals of the new standards, saying, “Throughout this process, we looked deeply at the marketplace to determine new routes to relevance, to ensure business schools are developing the type of leaders that society needs for the future.”
According to a press release by AACSB International, the new accreditation standards promote a stronger relationship between students, faculty and business professionals. They are designed to help students have an impact on society through more ways than just scholarly education, helping students create new knowledge that is relevant to real-world business practices. Employers will be interested in hiring business students who have done the kind of knowledge work that is relevant to the societies they serve — a practice that is addressed specifically in the new 2013 standards.
AACSB International simplified their 21 standards in 2003 into a more manageable 15 standards for 2013. There is a strong focus on ethical business behavior in the updated 2013 standards. Member business schools must not only promote ethical behavior through general policies and procedures, they must also have strong systems in place for addressing any breaches in ethical behavior by students, faculty, administrators or professional staff.
AACSB’s new learning standards also emphasize the importance of social responsibility, which would include what it calls “current and emerging corporate responsibility issues,” such as diversity, environmental sustainability and economic globalization. According to the new standards, business schools must show their commitment to diversity by defining their school populations and explaining how they are “fostering opportunity for underserved populations.”
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