On 23rd February 2024, SFB received an official letter from the Initial Accreditation Committee (IAC), Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), informing that SFB's initial Self-Evaluation Report (iSER) has been officially accepted. This is a significant milestone on SFB's journey pursuing AACSB international accreditation, following the formal acceptance of the school’s Unit Accreditation Application (UA) and Eligibility Application (EA) by AACSB International.
The iSER is a highly important report required by AACSB International on business schools which are pursuing AACSB international accreditation. According to AACSB official documents, including Guiding Principles and Standards for Business Accreditation, Interpretive Guidance for Business Accreditation, etc., the best iSER expected by AACSB International should be a strategic management plan demonstrating how a business school will address its areas for improvement during the period of initial accreditation and how the school will maintain continuous improvements. AACSB International hopes a business school to outline in its iSER what gaps need to be closed to align with AACSB standards, and continually update the iSER during its initial accreditation process until alignment can be demonstrated. The iSER should be an evolving document and should ultimately transfer into the final Self-Evaluation Report (SER) as the basis for AACSB’s on-site Peer Review Team (PRT) visit.
In June 2021, SFB formally reported to SHNU on its aspiration to pursue AACSB international accreditation, the world's most rigorous yet influential international business accreditation, and received consent and support from SHNU. Afterwards, with vigorous support from SHNU leadership and relevant university-level departments, and with unremitting efforts of SFB leadership, faculty members and professional staff, the school held multiple relevant meetings and made solid preparation. With adequate preparation and preliminary work, SFB set up an international accreditation office and organized an accreditation team to actively promote its progress to pursue AACSB international accreditation. At the end of the same year, SFB formally submitted Unit Accreditation Application (UA) to AACSB.
In March 2022, SFB's UA was formally approved by IAC, AACSB. This marked that SFB had officially entered into the process pursuing AACSB business accreditation as a self-standing business education unit, and that SFB was entitled to use an AACSB branding logo.
In May 2022, SFB submitted its Eligibility Application (EA) to IAC, AACSB, and received an official letter from IAC in August, confirming that the school’s EA had successfully passed. In addition, AACSB recommended Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin (Provost of Asia University, and Former Dean of the College of Management at Asia University) as SFB's Accreditation Mentor. In September 2022, SFB held the first meeting (online) with Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin.
In April and July 2023, Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin paid his first and second visits to SFB as per requirements by AACSB International Accreditation. After these two visits, Professor Lin complimented SFB's efforts in composing iSER and meeting AACSB International Accreditation standards in both hardware and software, and expressed great expectation for the final results. In addition, the Mentor indicated that SFB has distinctive features and highlights, and hoped SFB could best present these features and highlights to AACSB International in a most efficient way.
During 28th November to 2nd December 2023, SFB delegation led by Professor Jianghui LIU (Dean of SFB) visited Osaka, Japan to attend “AACSB 2023 Asia Pacific Annual Conference”. During this Annual Conference, SFB delegates actively exchanged viewpoints on development trend of business education and researches with 300+ delegates from 30+ countries and regions around the globe, including 60+ delegates from 30+ universities and institutions in Mainland China. In addition, the organizer of the Annual Conference has arranged a special session for delegates from universities and institutions in Mainland China to exchange ideas and thoughts. Lily Bi (President and CEO of AACSB) and Geoff Perry (AACSB Executive Vice President, Global Chief Membership Officer and Managing Director of AACSB Asia Pacific) attended this special session in person, and had in-depth exchanges with participating delegates.
For accreditation work of the next stage, SFB will carefully study the feedback from IAC, facilitate accreditation work pursuant to the established goals, carry on continuous improvement benchmarking the latest AACSB official documents, including Guiding Principles and Standards for Business Accreditation, Interpretive Guidance for Business Accreditation, etc., plan for composing of the progress report, and endeavor to invite AACSB Peer Review Team (PRT) to visit SFB as early as possible. SFB will do its best to accomplish these objectives in accreditation work, and finally be accredited as an AACSB-accredited business school that is globally recognized. In addition, on its journey pursuing AACSB accreditation, SFB will integrate the philosophy of “continuous improvement” into its day-to-day routine. SFB firmly believes that its level of discipline construction and societal impact both at home and abroad will be constantly upgrading with full support of faculty members and professional staff at the school.
AACSB is a global nonprofit association that aims to connect educators, students and businesses to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders. AACSB provides services to 1,900+ member organizations across 100+ countries and regions, as well as 1,000+ accredited business schools around the globe. AACSB international accreditation and its quality assurance have long been regarded as the highest standards for business education worldwide. Currently, there are 48 AACSB-accredited business schools in Mainland China, and only less than 6 percent of business schools worldwide have obtained AACSB accreditation.
(Contribution & Photography: SFB International Accreditation Office)
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