GLOBAL: International business school group expands

A prestigious international accrediting body for business schools has appointed a new chairman, as it continues to grow worldwide. Economist Andrew J Policano, dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, will lead AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Policano took office on 1 February. He has been a board member since 2001. He has played a key role in developing the AACSB professional qualified bridge programme, and vice chair of its special committee on global accreditation strategy and compensation committee.

Keen on evaluating media rankings, Policano has served on the organisation's media rankings task force, and media rankings committee. He succeeds Howard Thomas, current dean of the Lee Kong China School of Business at Singapore Management University, and former dean of Warwick Business School and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Warwick, in the UK.

AACSB accreditation is widely sought by business schools, and less than 5% of these institutions have done so worldwide: 579 business schools currently have its seal of approval, spanning 35 countries, with 170 institutions maintaining an additional specialised AACSB accreditation for their accounting courses. Its global headquarters is in Tampa, Florida, USA, and its Asia headquarters is in Singapore.

Last month, AACSB International announced that nine more higher education institutions had earned its initial accreditation for business studies, with the organisation announcing that it was maintaining accreditation for 45 schools for business and 21 for accounting.

The newly accredited institutions were Dalton State College (US), Faculdade de Economia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), Jacksonville University (US), Meredith College (US), Minnesota State University, Moorhead (US), Qatar University (Qatar), Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (China), and Virginia Military Institute (US).

"AACSB commends the faculty, deans, directors, and administrative staffs of each institution for their exemplary work in helping their schools earn the highest honour in business school accreditation," said John J Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of AACSB International. "We are pleased to welcome the newly AACSB accredited schools, and send our congratulations to those that have maintained their accreditation."

* www.aacsb.edu

keith.nuthall@uw-news.com