AACSB Accreditation

Business Accreditation

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

Accounting Accreditation

Supplemental accounting accreditation is for schools interested in an elevated quality assurance system for their accounting programs. To achieve AACSB Accounting Accreditation, an institution must first—or simultaneously—pursue AACSB Business Accreditation.

An appointed Accounting Accreditation Task Force developed the current accounting standards, which were adopted by the AACSB Accounting Accreditation Council in April 2018. The six standards are organized into three categories: strategic management and innovation for accounting academic units, accounting learning, and teaching, and accounting academic and professional engagement and professional interactions.

The standards are built on the three themes of engagement, innovation, and impact. These themes are integrated to achieve continuous quality improvement.

Since AACSB accounting accreditation is supplemental to AACSB’s business accreditation process, the standards for AACSB accounting accreditation build on the business standards and follow a similar structure to the business standards.

Therefore, the accounting accreditation report and documentation do not duplicate information included in the business accreditation report. The business accreditation report and documentation are the foundation on which the accounting accreditation report and documentation are added.

2018 Accounting Standards (July 1, 2024 Update)

In addition to meeting the nine business accreditation standards, the school must also fulfill the criteria for the six accounting accreditation standards, which are specific to the discipline and profession of accounting.

Download the July 1, 2024 Accounting Accreditation Standards

July 1, 2024 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 Standards for Accounting Accreditation. These updates are intended to provide greater clarification and do not represent material changes. The standards were revised to reflect the new AACSB six-year accreditation cycle. All references to five-years were updated to six-years. Additionally, the reference to the Accounting Program Questionnaire was removed since the questionnaire is now part of the Business School Questionnaire.

Accounting Initial Accreditation

Schools that have earned business accreditation can begin the process with the submission of the initial self-evaluation report (iSER) phase, eliminating the submission of the eligibility application. Institutions that have not earned business accreditation may apply simultaneously for business and accounting accreditation.

Accounting accreditation is supplemental and coincides with the business accreditation process.

Eligibility for Accounting Accreditation

Submit an accreditation eligibility request to obtain the eligibility application.
Complete and submit eligibility application for accounting accreditation and the applicant profile sheet to [email protected]. Request any program exclusions as necessary.
An accreditation staff member reviews the application for completeness and requests any additional information from the school.
The Accounting Accreditation Committee (AAC) reviews the application to determine whether eligibility criteria are met and whether the school can feasibly achieve accreditation in the allotted amount of time.
After the AAC has reviewed the application, the school will receive a decision letter with the next steps in the initial accreditation process. If the application is approved, a mentor will be assigned to help guide the school through the initial accreditation process.

Accounting Continuous Improvement Review

The AACSB continuous improvement review process is conducted every six years and creates an ongoing focus of continuous improvement. This signals that an AACSB-accredited institution has documented continuous improvements in support of its stated mission and strategic management plan to sustain AACSB accreditation status.

Three years prior to the continuous improvement review, each institution is asked to submit a CIR application to initiate the continuous improvement review process.

In the year of review, the Continuous Improvement Review Report, organized around the themes of the accreditation standards engagement, innovation, and impact, as well as the three areas of the accounting accreditation standards, should be submitted.

Both the school and the Peer Review team should read the Accounting and Business PRT best practices document found here.

Fees

All accreditation fees can be found here.

Resources

Continuous Improvement Review Resources

Handbooks and Processes
CIR Handbook (Business and Accounting)
Roles and Responsibilities
Policies and Procedures

CIR Timelines
2023-24 Visit

Accounting CIR Application Required Documentation

Accounting Accreditation
Accounting CIR Application

Accounting CIR Report Guidelines

Accounting Accreditation
Accounting CIR Guidelines

Accounting Required Tables

Accounting Accreditation
Table A2-1
Table A6

Tables may be uploaded as PDF or Excel documents in myAccreditation