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The ever-increasing emphasis on assessment and accreditation in academia throughout the world is changing the culture of a great many educational institutions. Accreditation is the tool used to monitor, assess, and evaluate the standards and quality of the education received by students. An increasing focus on strengthening accreditation requirements in the United States is escalating the need to improve curriculum and assessment systems.
Accreditation is exceedingly important to an educational institution and all of its stakeholders. From a prospective student's point of view, such validation is particularly important to help identify reputable institutions and provide an assurance that the institution will maintain and update resources on a regular basis. From a faculty perspective, accreditation helps to provide a framework for continuous improvement of programs. From the institution's perspective accreditation helps to increase visibility, facilitates funding from public and private funding organizations, enhances the attractiveness of the institution for prospective students and faculty members, and instills a sense of pride within the institution. The actual process of preparing for accreditation itself advances the focus on quality of student learning and renews a commitment to the educational mission.
Specialized accreditation normally applies to programs, departments, or schools that are sub-components of an institution of higher education. The accredited unit may be as large as a college or school within a university or as small as a single curriculum within a discipline. Most of the specialized accrediting agencies that review units within an institution of higher education are accredited by one of the regional accrediting commissions.
The Walker School of Business & Technology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) for BS, BA, MBA, MA, MS and doctoral programs in the Business and Management Departments. Please note that the BA Economics is not accredited at this time. The new MA Nonprofit Leadership program and the MS Forensic Accounting program are pending accreditation by ACBSP.
ACBSP provides specialized business accreditation, therefore programs housed in the Mathematics & Computer Science Department do not fall under this accreditation.
