Societal impact focus, new volunteering course and tips for the challenges business schools face in new AACSB report

Societal impact focus, new volunteering course and tips for the challenges business schools face in new AACSB report

AACSB International has released its annual State of Accreditation Report for 2022-23, reiterating its commitment to diversity and implementing AI technology in the accreditation process in a sustainable and ethical manner.

Societal Impact

The organisation carried out 167 Continuous Improvement Review (CIR) visits at member schools in the last year, highlighting the innovative societal impact efforts of schools around the world.

Visited schools reported a total of 180 issues focused on having an economic impact, 142 focused on the environment and 270 on social issues.

Asia-Pacific and EMEA schools were fairly evenly distributed among the three categories, while schools in the Americas placed greater emphasis on social and economic impact and less on the environment.

Volunteering

197 AACSB accreditation volunteers were trained on the 2020 standards since July 2022. A total of 738 volunteers have been trained so far. 98% of the new volunteers report feeling satisfied with their training.

In 2023-24, AACSB will launch its volunteer refresher training course, which volunteers are required to attend every three years. The course will highlight key updates made since the release of the 2020 accreditation standards.

Global challenges

The new report also reveals key insights into the challenges schools face.

Specifically, 57% of schools had room for progress in their strategic planning, 66% in their provision of faculty and professional staff resources, 48% in their assurance of learning processes and 73% in their societal impact efforts.

AACSB outlines key strategies to help schools meet their goals in these areas so they can continue to address important global issues and shape the next generation of leaders.

Advice for schools includes refining their faculty qualification processes, clarifying their societal impact focuses and monitoring assurance of learning processes more regularly. 

The report can be accessed in full here.