AACSB accreditation

Business Accreditation

Earning AACSB accreditation signifies a business school’s commitment to strategic management, learner success, thought leadership, and societal impact.

AACSB Business Accreditation Standards

2024 Annual Update

In the spirit of continuous improvement, AACSB enhances the accreditation standards and interpretive guidance annually. Updates are based on feedback from peer review teams, accreditation committees, deans, accounting program administrators, and other representatives from the AACSB business education community.

On July 1, 2024, AACSB released its annual update to the 2020 Guiding Principles and Standards for Business Accreditation and Interpretive Guidance. These updates are intended to provide greater clarification and do not represent material changes. As such, these standards are effective immediately. View a summary of key updates to the to the business accreditation standards and interpretive guidance. 

The standards fulfill the following key objectives:

  • Reinforce long-held AACSB commitments to mission focus and peer review
  • Emphasize a principles-based and outcomes-focused approach, as well as relevance for business schools now and in the future 
  • Recognize the changing landscape of student demographics and reflect the activities we envision business schools of the future will undertake to ensure continuous improvement and high quality in business education 
  • Value the diversity of thought leadership in the context of a school’s mission
  • Characterize the guiding principles that represent key values to AACSB

The nine standards are organized into three categories: 

 AACSB 2020 Business Accreditation Guiding Principles and Standards

For accounting accreditation standards, click here