DCU Business School awarded AACSB Accreditation

DCU Business School's position as a world-leading business school has been confirmed, with the award of AACSB accreditation - placing it in the top 5% worldwide.

DCU Business School has been awarded accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the world's oldest and most prestigious global accrediting body for business schools. AACSB accreditation is widely recognised as the hallmark of excellence in business education, and has been earned by less than five percent of the world's business schools.

Achieving accreditation is a process of rigorous internal review, engagement with an AACSB assigned mentor, and peer review. During the multi-year process, the school focuses on developing and implementing a plan to align with AACSB's accreditation standards. These standards require excellence in areas relating to strategic management and innovation; student, faculty and staff engagement; learning and teaching; and academic and professional engagement.

AACSB's international accreditation panel highly commended DCU Business School on its spirit of innovation and outstanding level of industry engagement:

"DCU Business School is innovative and distinctive. It has excellent engagement with industry as evidenced in research projects, industry-led or co-developed business internships and consulting projects for Irish and international companies. The school has a clear commitment to infusing an application-oriented, cutting-edge curricula throughout its programmes. There is internal and external validation of outcome measures. The very high employment levels for its students also speak to the relevance of its curriculum."

Dr. Anne Sinnott, Dean of DCU Business School, warmly welcomed the achievement of AACSB accreditation,

“DCU Business School is an engaged, innovative, internationally-focused school which prides itself on its excellent reputation for impacting on students, the academic community, industry and wider society. From the outset, our guiding voices have been those of industry and students, and as a result, we are distinctive for our deep and responsive industry engagement and our close concern with the success of our students. This accreditation by AACSB recognises these core values and is testament to the drive and ambition of our staff, students, alumni, industry partners and other stakeholders and I wish to thank everyone who contributed to our accreditation process.”

What does AACSB stand for?

AACSB stands for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

What does it mean?

AACSB accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. It provides internationally recognised, specialised accreditation for business and accounting programmes.

Why does it matter?

Less than 5% of the world's business schools have earned AACSB accreditation. This is because AACSB-accredited schools must pass very rigorous quality standards, of which have been proven to provide the best in business education worldwide.

How did we get here?

Over the last five years, we have been going through a rigorous internal review to meet the AACSB accreditation standards, which requires a high quality teaching environment, a commitment to continuous improvement, and curricula responsive to the needs of businesses.

What does it mean for our students and graduates?

A student from an AACSB-accredited school is:

taught by top academics
exposed to a challenging curriculum
completing a degree that is top quality globally
part of a global accredited community
recognised worldwide by top employers and other universities around the world
able to gain a distinct advantage in the real world

For more information about AACSB accreditation visit: www.aacsb.edu

Photographed above (L-R): Professor Barbara Flood, Deputy Dean, DCU Business School; Dr Caroline McMullan, Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning, DCU Business School; Professor Brian MacCraith, DCU President; Dr Anne Sinnott, Executive Dean, DCU Business School; Ursula Baxter, Faculty Manager, DCU Business School; Professor Colm O'Gorman, Associate Dean for Research, DCU Business School.