New standards, new freedom, new responsibility
by Pat Heaston

Creativity in programming is now celebrated where it was once stifled by the concern of “what does AACSB say about this?”

The degree programs in the College of Business and Public Administration have been accredited for more than 50 years by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, or AACSB International, the most prestigious accrediting body for colleges of business in the world. Until recent years, this accreditation was maintained by adherence to a rather prescriptive set of standards that defined curriculum, the profile for students, the credentials for faculty members and the requisites for the physical facilities available for use in the educative process. An AACSB team would visit every 10 years and conduct a three-day audit that substantiated that the standards were being maintained at a high level. If a college was successful, its accreditation was “reaffirmed.”

There has been a gradual movement away from this prescriptive approach over the past 10 years, culminating in the adoption of a new set of standards in April 2003 that focus on the mission of the institution, its strategic planning process and its program for assessment to ensure continuous improvement. There is no longer a one-size-fits-all context for defining quality collegiate education in business. Each school must define its particular mission, what it intends to be. It must define the learning outcomes it seeks to achieve; it must assess the achievement of those outcomes; and then, based on this assessment, it must make the changes it thinks are needed to improve its degree programs. The visit every 10 years by a team of auditors is replaced by an “Annual Maintenance Review” report that details progress made during the year relative to the mission and a consultative visit every fifth year that focuses on the mission, the strategic planning process and assessment of learning outcomes and not on adherence to a list of prescriptive standards.

Colleges of business now have much more freedom to distinguish themselves from each other, to discover the strengths that are unique to them or that they wish to develop to meet the needs of an audience of learners that they can define. Creativity in programming is now celebrated where it was once stifled by the concern of “what does AACSB say about this?”

We at Drake began adjusting our thinking one year ago by reexamining who we are and defining what is important to us. This process of redefinition is nearing completion. The hiring of a “non-traditional” dean has been a part of that process. Defining a new mission and clearly identifying the learning outcomes that we seek, however, is only the beginning. The hard part will be making it work, changing old habits, creating new courses, learning new pedagogies and truly assessing our progress. These are important responsibilities that we must be willing to assume if we are to continue to create an educational enterprise of which we all can be proud.

Patrick Heaston is associate dean of the CBPA and Aliber distinguished professor of accounting at Drake University.

YOUR OPINION WANTED: If you have an industry-related opinion you'd like to write and submit for consideration as a future "Hot Topic," or if you want to respond to this editorial, send an e-mail to Nexus editor michelle.rubin@drake.edu.

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