Karlstad Business School has been given greenlight to proceed in the process for an accreditation by the Accreditation Committee at the AACSB. The work now continues towards building a robust and sustainable quality control system as a support for a continuous development of the school.
Just over two years ago, AACSB granted the Business School's request to start a process towards accreditation. It was the start of a quality development work for the entire department. The Business School sent in the first analysis during the summer and it was an extensive self-evaluation according to 15 standards. During this autumn, the Business School was given the positive reply that it has been approved to go ahead in the process.
In a letter to the Head of the Business School, AACSB wrote:
“The faculty, students, administration and other stakeholders of Karlstad University are to be congratulated on their efforts. The Initial Accreditation Committee commends the progress that your school has made toward earning AACSB International business accreditation and looks forward to working with your school in achieving its goals.”
AACSB is the abbreviation of The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The organization works globally with quality assurance and development of the education of economy and has over 1600 members. An accreditation process includes a quality development work expected to take five to seven years. During this time, the Business School has a mentor from the organization to support the work ahead.
“The report we sent in this summer is called an ‘Initial self-evaluation report’ and is a thorough analysis. We describe our goals regarding the education of the basic undergraduate level and higher master's level as well as the postgraduate level. We describe our strategy, our resources and how we are working to ensure that our students get the knowledge that we have set up in our goals. We have come far, but there is still much to be done, among other things, to strengthen the systematics in our measurements. I am extremely proud and happy over the committed work that the co-workers at the Business School are doing”, says Martin Löfgren, Head of the Business School.
Focus on quality in the education
The work with the accreditation process, means that the Business School is showing the ability to build a quality management system to support a continuous development of the school.
"An accreditation is important, not least to our internal processes, to ensure that we are doing the right things in the right way. It also has a significance for our international cooperation, where an accreditation is often a precondition. For our current students, it is important that our reputation as a Business School among employers gives them good career opportunities. An accreditation also increases the Business Schools opportunities to attract new students and staff that share our ambition, explains Marie-Theresé Christiansson, Deputy Head at the Business School and responsible for the quality work.
Jönköping International Business School and School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University are the two universities in Sweden, so far, that has an accreditation according to AACSB standards.
