Business School Strategical Planning for Accr...

Business School Strategical Planning for Accreditation

Author Name : Noha Hamie Haidar

ABSTRACT:  Accreditation is a prominence that offers assurance to students, their families, and the public, by showing that an institution meets certain standards of excellence. There are two types of educational accreditation: institutional and specialized or programmatic. Regional and national associations provide Institutional while the programmatic accreditation evaluates particular schools. Higher Education (HE) is widely expanding. Meanwhile, the demand on higher education is growing and tuition and education costs are increasing. The problem is the increasingly competitive market. The question is what are the reasons behind the Business Schools accreditation delay? The literature review shows that accreditation is a complicated project plan because of several challenges. Accreditation requires a huge cost, workload, and adaptation to new standards and conditions. Accreditation is a complicated process; it is not a mandatory process. In contrast, it is an external review of the school’s ability to provide highest quality programs. In this exploratory article, I found some conditions and prerequisites in the accreditation process. Besides the financial requirements and commitments, accreditation requires regional accreditation and a development of a strategic plan. To be internationally promoted, institutions should start regionally, which will prepare and promote Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to be recognized and will facilitate their school’s accreditation. Thus, business school efforts should be oriented toward institutional accreditation then toward programmatic ones. Consequently, institutions must work on regional accreditation. Conclusion and recommendations are that HEIs should have a well-prepared strategical management team to achieve their accreditation objectives. Institutional efforts should prioritize and focus on regional accreditation. Administrators in the school of business who are seeking programmatic or school accreditation must prepare a suitable strategic plan and follow the preliminary steps needed to be implemented. Therefore, an institution that adheres to a plan to get the accreditation should get a good number of regional accreditation and develop and improve their strategical and human resources management to achieve the intended course action.