Accounting Accreditation

July 1, 2022 Update

In the spirit of continuous improvement, AACSB enhances the accreditation standards and interpretive guidance annually. Updates are based on feedback from peer review teams, accreditation committees, deans, accounting program administrators, and other representatives from the AACSB business education community.

On July 1, 2022, AACSB released its annual update to the Standards for Accounting Accreditation. These updates are intended to provide greater clarification and do not represent material changes. Notable changes include:

• Standard A4 (Accounting Curricula Content, Management, and Assurance of Learning): Strengthened guidelines for learner-to-learner and learner-to-faculty engagement to more closely align with business standards.
• Standard A6 (Accounting Faculty Sufficiency, Credentials, Qualifications, and Deployment): made the following modifications to Table A6:
  • Renamed table to Technology Agility and Faculty Minimum Qualifications.
  • Reordered the columns and added references to the standard associated with the information being collected (Standard A5 vs. Standard A6).
  • Added a section for additional narrative on the depth and breadth of technology coverage; the accounting unit’s goals with respect to technology and strategies for achieving these goals; and exemplars of how the unit covers the leveraging of technology to solve accounting problems.

Two versions of accounting standards will be in use during the remaining two years of the transition period for the 2020 business standards—one dated July 1, 2022, for schools being reviewed under the 2020 business accreditation standards, and the original version, dated April 23, 2018, for schools being reviewed under the 2013 business accreditation standards. View a summary of key updates to the  business accreditation standards and interpretive guidance.

Development of the 2018 Accounting Accreditation Standards

An appointed Accounting Accreditation Task Force developed the current accounting standards, which were adopted by the AACSB Accounting Accreditation Council in April 2018. The six standards are organized into three categories: strategic management and innovation for accounting academic units, accounting learning, and teaching, and accounting academic and professional engagement and professional interactions.

The standards are built on the three themes of engagement, innovation, and impact. These themes are integrated to achieve continuous quality improvement. 

Since AACSB accounting accreditation is supplemental to AACSB’s business accreditation process, the standards for AACSB accounting accreditation build on the business standards and follow a similar structure to the business standards.

Therefore, the accounting accreditation report and documentation do not duplicate information included in the business accreditation report. The business accreditation report and documentation are the foundation on which the accounting accreditation report and documentation are added.