SMU maintains prestigious AACSB Accreditation for its business & accountancy programmes

Singapore, 13 May 2016 (Friday) – The Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) and School of Accountancy (SOA) have achieved another milestone – both schools have earned re-accreditation from AACSB International (AACSB), the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master, and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education which has been earned by less than five percent of the world's business programmes.  According to AACSB, among all the institutions offering business degrees across Southeast Asia, SMU is one of only two universities that have earned accreditation in both business and accounting.

SMU’s attainment of re-accreditation has been achieved under a new set of standards implemented by AACSB in 2013.  The new standards require institutions to demonstrate how they meet the three pillars of Innovation, Impact and Engagement.  Therefore, an accredited institution not only exemplifies innovation in various aspects of its operations including curriculum design and pedagogy; it also focuses its efforts on the impact and relevance of its programmes and research; and actively engages the academic community, the business community, and the larger community in which it operates.

Robert D. Reid, Executive Vice President and Chief Accreditation Officer of AACSB International, said, “It takes a great deal of commitment and determination to earn and maintain AACSB Accreditation.  Business schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty, and professional staff must make a commitment to ongoing continuous improvement to ensure that the institution will continue to deliver the highest quality of education to students.”

Professor Gerard George, Dean of SMU LKCSB, said, “I am extremely proud that we have successfully achieved re-accreditation under AACSB’s new standards.  The re-accreditation demonstrates AACSB’s strong confidence in the excellent quality of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes; our commitment to excellence in providing a transformative and innovative learning environment; as well as our deep engagement and strong links with the academic and business fraternity.  The AACSB re-accreditation is synonymous with high international standards of quality, and certainly reaffirms the strong value proposition that we offer to all our students.”

Professor Cheng Qiang, Dean of the SMU SOA, said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our faculty and staff for their dedication to the School and for their support on this important exercise.  Maintaining the AACSB International accreditation since 2011 is a testament to our university’s and our school’s commitment to deliver innovative and impactful programmes in Singapore.  This achievement is significant because it reaffirms the value of our accounting programmes and serves as a signal to students and employers that we are providing accounting education at the highest level of quality, not only through our holistic education programmes but also through our collaborative interactions with the business community.”

The extension of accreditation is for five years.  Including SMU, there are 761 business schools in 52 countries and territories that have earned AACSB Accreditation; 183 institutions hold an additional specialised AACSB Accreditation for their accounting programmes.

More info on AACSB accreditation can be found here: www.aacsb.edu/accreditation.

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Annex 1:

Comments from the AACSB Peer Review Team

The AACSB Peer Review Team (PRT), which conducted the accreditation assessment, found in SMU many strengths, unique and innovative features, and effective practices.

In its report on LKCSB, the PRT commended LKCSB for its strong research culture, as demonstrated by the School’s high rankings in the UT-Dallas research output rankings (49^th in the world), high average citation rates of its faculty, and the attractiveness of the School to new faculty hires.  It also noted LKCSB’s well-resourced and very active academic visitors’ programme deriving joint research projects and publications; as well as its unique SMU-X capstone experience where business undergraduates get to work on problems faced by partner organisations in cross-disciplinary teams under the mentorship of both faculty and industry contributors.

In its report on SOA, the PRT commended SOA on having made their reputation as a research centre, ranking fifth in the world for archival research in financial accounting and sixth in all accounting areas in the Brigham Young University accounting research rankings.  It also noted SOA faculty members’ active academic and professional engagements, which range from participation on editorial boards at good journals to service on governmental, regulatory and professional bodies.  Furthermore, many SOA faculty members have won or earned honorable mentions in several international awards for their teaching and innovative pedagogy, including the CEEMAN Champion Award, Bea Sanders/AICPA Teaching Innovation Award, Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Award, and the AAA Innovation in Accounting Education Award by the American Accounting Association.

The PRT also highlighted that SMU’s well-resourced and highly impactful student development programme – which includes ‘SMU Life Lessons’ and SMU’s global experience platform, which facilitates 88% of the students getting an international experience – is a strategic differentiator.  The University’s case teaching and writing initiative, which has produced more than 140 cases (the vast majority being Asian business cases), has also achieved several wins in the EFMD and Emerald case competitions.

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