Business Accreditation
Accounting Accreditation
Supplemental accounting accreditation is for schools interested in an elevated quality assurance system for their accounting programs. To achieve °®Âþµº Accounting Accreditation, an institution must first—or simultaneously—pursue °®Âþµº Business Accreditation.
An appointed Accounting Accreditation Task Force developed the current accounting standards, which were adopted by the °®Âþµº 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 °®Âþµº accounting accreditation is supplemental to °®Âþµº’s business accreditation process, the standards for °®Âþµº 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.
Resources
Accreditation documents used by schools and volunteers are in under the Resources tab, next to the Help tab.In addition to meeting the nine business accreditation standards, the school must also fulfill the criteria for the six accounting accreditation standards, which are specific to the discipline and profession of accounting.
Download the July 1, 2024 Accounting Accreditation Standards
July 1, 2024 Update
In the spirit of continuous improvement, °®Âþµº 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 °®Âþµº business education community.
On July 1, 2024, °®Âþµº released its annual update to the Standards for Accounting Accreditation. These updates are intended to provide greater clarification and do not represent material changes. The standards were revised to reflect the new °®Âþµº six-year accreditation cycle. All references to five-years were updated to six-years. Additionally, the reference to the Accounting Program Questionnaire was removed since the questionnaire is now part of the Business School Questionnaire.
Accounting accreditation is supplemental and coincides with the business accreditation process.
Eligibility for Accounting Accreditation
- Submit an accreditation eligibility request to obtain the eligibility application.
- Complete and submit eligibility application for accounting accreditation and the applicant profile sheet to [email protected]. Request any program exclusions as necessary.
- An accreditation staff member reviews the application for completeness and requests any additional information from the school.
- The Accounting Accreditation Committee (AAC) reviews the application to determine whether eligibility criteria are met and whether the school can feasibly achieve accreditation in the allotted amount of time.
- After the AAC has reviewed the application, the school will receive a decision letter with the next steps in the initial accreditation process. If the application is approved, a mentor will be assigned to help guide the school through the initial accreditation process.
Three years prior to the continuous improvement review, each institution is asked to submit a CIR application to initiate the continuous improvement review process.
In the year of review, the Continuous Improvement Review Report, organized around the themes of the accreditation standards engagement, innovation, and impact, as well as the three areas of the accounting accreditation standards, should be submitted.
Both the school and the Peer Review team should read the Accounting and Business PRT best practices document found in .