Accreditation Sickness in the Consumption of Business Education: The Vacuum in AACSB Standard Setting

Abstract

This article examines peer-administered accreditation in business education, taking AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as its focus. Attention is directed to the educationally unhealthy consequences of an established regional mode of accreditation becoming an international benchmark for business education consumption. At the heart of the AACSB’s mission-linked approach is an evacuation of core content from business education. The change to a mission-linked architecture was motivated, it is argued, primarily by expansionist, rather than pedagogical, considerations. It coincided with a reduction in the number of US research-based schools unaccredited, the inability of many US-business schools to meet AACSB’s previous standards, the emergence of a rival accreditation agency (Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs) formed to target this market, and international competition from other accreditation bodies. We note that the mission-linked approach, underpinned by peer-review, has been good for AACSB growth but has, we suggest, been restrictive and unhealthy for business education that does not fit its ostensibly flexible and accommodating mould.