US Accreditation as a World-Class Education Quality Indicator

Abstract

On the turning point of European and world history, it is extremely important to unveil and effectively utilize the potential of effective high-quality education to make the future better for generations to come. Higher education quality management through accreditation has a long history of development in the United States, and time-proven standards, stimulating accredited institutions to continually improve academic quality.

The concepts, systems, principles and practices of accreditation arouse in the United States out of the need to meet the demands for quality, and evolved over decades, to form a coherent set of standards and frameworks of continuous improvement in all meaningful directions of the educational institutions’ life, striving for teaching excellence and high learning outcomes. At present, accreditation principles and processes, as exemplified by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) programmatic accreditation, are implemented in the US and numerous countries of the world, to ensure high standard and continuous improvement of business education quality, to raise the competitiveness of educational institutions in response to the expectations of public (primarily, students and their families), governments, employers, universities/colleges, academics, and broader communities.

This study establishes the correlation of the quality management system via ACBSP accreditation with the continuous improvement of business education quality. This study also provides statistical evidence that the application of quality management principles at institutions of higher education with accredited business programs did result in the association with enhanced student learning outcomes.

Higher education quality management leads to higher employability of the institution’s graduates. Since the quality of education is crucial for the country’s economic growth and prosperity, the business education institutions and programs in Ukraine and other Central and Eastern European and Eurasian countries may benefit from implementing quality management through ACBSP accreditation for their undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate (doctoral) business programs, to satisfy ever-rising expectations of candidates for top managerial and leadership positions.

The research suggests that 51% of the institutions of higher education with business programs in the United States, and 93% of the institutions of higher education worldwide could benefit from implementing accreditation principles and processes to maintain and enhance their education quality and competitiveness in the world business education market, for the sake of highest recognition of their graduates’ diploma on the global job markets and significant increase of their employability.