OXFORD, Miss. – AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, has reaffirmed the standing of the University of Mississippi’s School of Business Administration and Patterson School of Accountancy as being among the world’s best.
Both schools were reaccredited by AACSB for another cycle. For this academic year, 56 schools maintained their accreditation in business, and 24 sustained their accreditation in accountancy.
Ken Cyree, dean of the School of Business Administration and the Frank R. Day Mississippi Bankers Association Chair, said he is pleased with the reaffirmation of accreditation and the accolades from the visit team.“I appreciate the faculty and staff working hard to provide our students with an education that will help them be successful,” Cyree said. “We are also pleased with our scholarship in the school and our processes to ensure we are offering high-quality teaching, research and service. We always strive for continuous improvement and look forward to getting better at what we do, which will help our students compete.”
Mark Wilder, dean of the Patterson School of Accountancy, said he is grateful to the faculty and staff for their many efforts and for working together toward the common goal of being one of the nation’s leading institutions in accountancy education.
“Our peer-review team was thorough and diligent, and we appreciate their efforts and the time that they spent examining our program,” Wilder said. “They noted that the Patterson School of Accountancy has outstanding students who go on to have very successful professional careers, and loyal and generous alumni who provide great support to the school. While our team suggested areas for continuous improvement, they were also highly complimentary of our program’s many strengths and commended us for a variety of best practices.”
Founded in 1916, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in business and accountancy.
Schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, heads of business units, and academic and nonacademic staff must commit to ongoing improvement to ensure that the institution continues to offer students the highest quality of education.
“Accreditation is important and not automatic, thus being accredited in both business and accounting by itself puts us in the top 5 percent of business schools in the world,” Cyree said. “We look forward to the future and are happy with being reaffirmed for accreditation to continue the rich success we have had since 1917 in the School of Business Administration.”
AACSB Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education and has been earned by less than 5 percent of the world’s business programs. Worldwide, 649 business schools across 43 countries and territories maintain AACSB accreditation. Similarly, 178 institutions maintain an additional specialized AACSB accreditation for their accountancy programs.
For more information on AACSB accreditation, visit http://www.aacsb.edu. For more information on the School of Business Administration, go to http://www.olemissbusiness.com/. For more information on the Patterson School of Accountancy, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/.