AACSB Mentor Visited - A Success!

At the end of 2008, the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy submitted Eligibility Application to the AACSB. The application, only granted to candidate schools who look promising in achieving accreditation, was accepted (or approved) by the AACSB on February 23, 2009. There are various activities to be planned and completed successfully before a business school would get accredited, and one of the first activities is for the Mentor to conduct an on-site visit to resolve eligibility issues and evaluate readiness to proceed to the next steps.

Our Mentor (Mike Tearney from the University of Kentucky, USA) visited our campus on February 22-25, 2010 as part of the AACSB's Initial Accreditation process. Although we're in the first year of our accreditation endeavor, the Mentor's visit went exceptionally well. Out of the 21 standards that the AACSB continually evaluate us, the Mentor felt that we initially met 16 of those standards. This is an exceptional accomplishment at this early stage. Of the 5 standards that haven't been initially met, we'll continue to enhance our Faculty Qualifications (Standard 10) through education, recruitments, incentives, and research and implement Assurance of Learning in our Undergraduate, MBA, Masters of Science, and Doctoral programs (Standards 16, 18, 19, and 21 respectively).

With everyone's help, success in within reach. This is echoed by our Mentor's conclusions submitted to the AACSB: "I believe the FCA is a very good business school and its faculty as well as the administration at both the Faculty and University levels is very focused and supportive in achieving AACSB International Accreditation in the shortest time possible. I fully believe the FCA will be successful in its efforts." 

Thanks for all the assistance everyone in the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy has given to make AACSB accreditation endeavor a success to this point. Let's press forward toward achieving international accreditation for our School and University, just as the Provost has acknowledged our leadership role on being the pioneer of our University, "once again, the FCA is playing a leadership role on campus by pursuing international accreditation."