With re-accreditation secured, CoB projects five more years of continuous improvement

By David Doremus 

The College of Business and School of Accounting at James Madison University have both received confirmation of their re-accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business–International.

“It’s an affirmation of the impact our faculty and staff members are having in the classroom, in their respective academic fields, and in the business community,” said Michael Busing, dean of the College of Business.

“It’s also a tribute to our very active and engaged alumni, who have been so generous with their gifts of time, talent, and treasure,” Busing added. “They’ve been indispensable to the creation of the first-rate curriculum, exceptional programming and world-class facilities we now enjoy.”

AACSB-International is the premier business accreditation organization in the world. Some 900 business institutions in more than 60 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation.

Nearly 200 institutions are also accredited for their accounting programs. JMU’s College of Business is included in this elite subset, which represents the two percent of all programs that hold both business and accounting accreditation.

The College of Business has been accredited since 1982, with its most recent re-accreditation in 2016. Schools that wish to remain accredited through AACSB undergo a rigorous continuous- improvement review every five years to ensure they remain on a positive track.

The AACSB revised its standards in June 2020, adding a new standard focused on societal impact and engagement. This brought the total number of standards to nine. This year’s review marked the first time the CoB had been evaluated under the expanded set of standards.

To prepare itself for the visit from the AACSB peer-review team, the CoB organized a committee consisting of 12 representatives from across the college. It was co-chaired by Scott Gallagher, associate dean for academic affairs, and Kim Foreman, associate dean for human resources and administration.

The purpose of the committee was to help ensure that the report submitted to the peer-review team fully represented what CoB faculty members have achieved in the areas of engagement, innovation and impact.

The entire re-accreditation process exemplifies the effort CoB continually makes to ensure its programs are of the highest quality, and reflect the greatest possible credit on the students enrolled in them.