Accreditation

On this page:

• AACSB Accreditation
• AACSB Continuous Improvement Review (CIR)
  • Process
  • Timeline
  • Updates
  • Resources
• ABET Accreditation

AACSB Accreditation

The Raj Soin College of Business is fully accredited at both the undergraduate and graduate level by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, the highest accrediting body for business colleges in the world. Less than five percent of business programs in the world achieve this standard of excellence. This means that our faculty, curriculum, and all other educational resources are thoroughly and professionally evaluated by an independent board of educators and have been found to be of exceptional quality. As an added distinction, the Department of Accountancy's programs are separately accredited by AACSB International. The accreditation applies to the department's undergraduate major and its Master of Accountancy program. In the U.S., only 178 accredited institutions have separately accredited accounting programs. The Raj Soin College of Business faculty and staff are committed to exceeding the standards advanced by the AACSB.

Here's a quick profile of AACSB-accredited business programs.

• There are 845 business institutions that have earned AACSB Accreditation, 531 of which are in the United States.
• There are 189 AACSB accredited schools that have both business and accounting accreditation, 178 of which are in the United States.
• The Raj Soin College of Business is one of the 178 schools in about 15,000 business programs in the world that have earned the AACSB accreditation in both its business and accounting programs. We are the first in the region to be accredited by AACSB International.

To learn more about the value of AACSB accreditation, visit the Best Business Schools website. See a list of AACSB accredited schools.

Graduation and Retention Data

• RSCoB Graduation Data (to be added)
• RSCoB Retention Data (to be added)

AACSB Continuous Improvement Review (CIR)

The Raj Soin College of Business is currently preparing for our upcoming AACSB CIR. This accreditation is important to our programs and valuable to employers. Here are some facts provided by AACSB International on its website.

• AACSB International (AACSB) is the longest serving global accrediting body and membership association for business schools worldwide. 
• AACSB accreditation is known worldwide as the longest standing and most recognized form of specialized/professional accreditation an institution and its business programs can earn.  
• AACSB provides internationally recognized, specialized accreditation for business and accounting programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral level.
• The AACSB accreditation standards challenge post-secondary educators to pursue excellence and continuous improvement throughout their business programs.

CIR Reports (2015)

• RSCOB CIR Report - Business (PDF)
• RSCOB CIRC Team Response - Business (PDF)
• RSCOB CIR Report - Accounting (PDF)
• RSCOB CIRC Team Response - Accounting (PDF)

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CIR Process (2021)

Important Dates and Facts

• AACSB CIR - Spring 2021
• The CIR process relies on extensive and effective communications between the host business school and the accounting academic unit and the peer review teams for business and accounting.

Visit Team

To be added

Four Non-Standing Committees Lead This Visit

• Strategic management and innovation committee (Standards 1–3)
• Participants committee - student faculty and professional staff (Standards 4–7)
• Learning and teaching committee (Standards 8–12)
• Academic and professional engagement committee (Standards 13–15)

The CIR Process for AACSB Business and Accounting

CIR stands for Continuous Improvement Review. Accreditation is not a standard-by-standard review. By focusing the review on educational improvement, strategic management, and fulfillment of mission, the members of peer review teams for business and accounting will be particularly attuned to educational quality issues and problems that may be revealed in the process. The CIR process relies on extensive and effective communications between the host business school and the accounting academic unit and the peer review teams for business and accounting. In addition, the value of the CIR process is enhanced with the business and accounting team collaboration in the review process and resulting report preparation.

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CIR Timeline (2021 Visit)

Date	Activity	Status
Spring 2017	Adopted new mission, vision, and values.
Fall 2017	Updated learning goals and objectives for all programs and their mapping.
2017-18 Academic Year (F17, Spr18)	First AoL cycle.
2018-19 Academic Year (F18, Spr19)	Second AoL cycle.
2019-20 Academic Year (F19, Spr20)	Third AoL cycle.
Fall 2019	Inform faculty, students, and key stakeholders of our refined timeline and seek input. Confirm peer review team for continuous improvement review.
Spring 2020	Complete assurance of learning tasks including closing the loop.
Summer 2020	Complete first draft of self-evaluation report.
Late summer, 2020	Informal team chair visit to review progress.
September 2020	Complete second draft of self-evaluation report incorporating chair suggestions.
September - November 2020	AACSB-themed faculty workshops.
September - November 2020	Review and revise self-evaluation report by faculty and board.
November 2020	Submit self-evaluation report.
Early spring 2021	Accreditation team visit.

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CIR Updates

Raj Soin College of Business plans to conduct a series of workshops to inform key stakeholders about the process and incorporate their feedback as we prepare the final version of the CIR and the associated material. The planned workshops are as follows:

Date	Time	Topic	Location
April 24, 2019	2:30pm	Explain the process of assurance of learning at college faculty meeting.
Sept. 2020	TBA	AACSB Workshop 1 - AMP and DM for new faculty. Bring a laptop or tablet if possible.
Oct. 2020	TBA	AACSB Workshop 2 - Building and verifying your AACSB vita with digital measures
Oct. 2020	TBA	AACSB Workshop 3 - AACSB standards and our CIR.
Oct. 2020	TBA	AACSB Workshop 4 - AACSB schedule discussion and open Q&A session.
Nov. 2020	TBA	AACSB Workshop 5 - Making AACSB work: what we have done right and what we could do better

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CIR Resources

• AMP - Assess My Program
• Digital measures for activity tracking 
• AACSB website
• 2013 AACSB standards

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ABET Accreditation

In 2006, our Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems became the first business school program in Ohio to be accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. We were also among the first twenty business programs in the U.S. to achieve this accreditation.