Northumbria joins an elite group by earning AACSB Accreditation

Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, has earned a full five-year Business accreditation by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

AACSB Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education, and has been earned by less than five percent of the world's business programmes. Today, of the approximate 15,700 institutions worldwide offering business degrees, there are only 711 business schools that maintain AACSB Accreditation. Similarly, 180 institutions maintain an additional specialized AACSB Accreditation for their accounting programmes. Newcastle Business School of Northumbria University is also seeking accreditation in Accounting, with a decision due this summer.

“It takes a great deal of commitment and determination to earn AACSB Accreditation,” said Robert D. Reid, Executive Vice President and Chief Accreditation Officer of AACSB International. “Business schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty, and professional staff must make a commitment to ongoing continuous improvement to ensure that the institution will continue to deliver the highest quality of education to students.”

Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University is based in an iconic £70m state-of-the-art city centre campus in the heart of Newcastle. It also offers courses from the University’s London campus, giving the School a presence in the UK’s two top cities for students. It has been recognised by Times Higher Education as one of the top-rated universities for the provision of business and management education in the UK.

Professor Andrew Wathey, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University, Newcastle, said: “This is a truly significant achievement as Northumbria and the Newcastle Business School’s place in the top echelons of Business Schools worldwide is confirmed. This important professional accreditation reflects the University’s focus on employability, innovation, excellence and impact.”

Kevin Kerrigan, Executive Dean for Business and Law at Northumbria, said: “Over the last ten years the Business School has gone from strength to strength making fundamental improvements across our programmes, quality assurance processes, student recruitment, partnership development and staff qualifications. I believe our success reflects the academic strengths and experience of our teaching staff, and the quality and commitment of the entire team. This positions Newcastle Business School in an elite group of only 5% of business schools worldwide.”

To learn more about Northumbria University visit http://www.northumbria.ac.uk. To learn more about AACSB International accreditation, visit the accreditation section of the AACSB International Web site at:http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/.