by Steven Parscale
In this competitive economic environment, accreditation is an extra tool you have available to secure the job you are seeking. Mentioning that you have graduated with a degree from a business school that has been accredited by one of two accrediting organizations adds an extra qualifier to the educational portion of your resume.
Many colleges and universities have been accredited to award degrees. However, fewer than half have secured accreditation status for the business degree program or entire school of business. (Similar accreditation exists for other academic areas such as law, medicine, nursing, and architecture.) To secure accreditation, a business program must go through a rigorous external review process and meet standards and criteria that validates the business program has met a certain standards.
The two organizations that have been recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (www.chea.org) as having a valid process for accrediting business schools and programs are the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (www.acbsp.org) and AACSB International (www.aacsb.edu). AACSB is the largest and oldest of the two accrediting organizations. They do not offer accreditation to the community colleges.
ACBSP was created so smaller institutions, including community colleges, would have an accrediting organization with a strong focus what occurs in the classroom. The ACBSP accreditation process is based on the Baldrige National Quality Program, Educational Criteria for Performance Excellence (http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/).
The web sites of ACBSP and AACSB list the colleges and universities that have accredited status. In addition, the web site for the college or university should mention this accreditation. Search for the key word “accreditation” on the site.
How do you use your school’s accreditation to your advantage?
In the area where you list your degree, add the words “Accredited by [name of organization].” In a job interview or in response to a question, you can tell potential employers that “accreditation is a process where the school has voluntarily sought to establish the quality of their business program by meeting rigorous standards and criteria. They are required to maintain this quality and engage in a continuous improvement process. While other programs may say they have processes that produce quality graduates my school has proven it by obtaining (ACBSP or AACSB) accreditation.”