In this article, I’ll talk about the AACSB accreditation and reveal the only 4 institutions in Singapore that have this accreditation.  

What is AACSB?

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or AACSB for short is an american professional organisation that accredits business and accounting programmes at business schools around the world.

The aim of this non-profit organisation is to hold business schools accountable for improving business practices by having them adhere to a set of standards that they call the Guiding Principles and Standards for Business Accreditation.

The standard has 3 categories focusing on strategic management and innovation; learner success; and thought leadership, engagement, and societal impact.

Under the management and innovation category, there are 3 standards that looks into:

• Strategic Planning
• Physical, Virtual and Financial Resources
• Faculty and Professional Resources

In the Learner Success category, the 4 standards being looked into are:

• Curriculum
• Assurance of Learning
• Learner Progression
• Teaching Effectiveness and Impact

And the final category of Thought Leadership, Engagement and Societal Impact looks into:

• Impact of Scholarship
• Engagement and Societal Impact

All in all, quite a well rounded standard looking at management plans including physical assets as well as talent management, learner success which involves steps to ensure the curriculum includes experiential learning opportunities and promotes learner engagement and the one I really like, teaching effectiveness and impact.

So in this standard, schools need to ensure that they have developmental activities in place to enhance faculty teaching abilities and it makes sure the pedagogical methods being used are up to date.

More importantly, it explicitly states that faculty must demonstrate a lifelong learning mindset. I’m really supportive of this as it allows students to model their teachers so you don’t end up with a do as I say and not do as I do kind of situation.

So what?

Ok, so an institution is accredited. So what?

AACSB has a very high standard. It’s so high that only about 900+ or 7% of institutions world wide have attained it.

To check if an institution is on the list, simply go to their website and check for the accredited schools.

AACSB Accredited Schools in Singapore

Let’s look at the AACSB accredited business schools in Singapore, since I’m located there.

As you can see, only 4 institutions are listed. Here they are listed in alphabetical order.