Orange Beach’s Columbia Southern University recently earned programmatic accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). While the university has held institutional accreditation since 2001, a programmatic accreditation is granted to specific degree programs within a university.
The ACBSP accreditation applies to the university’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business, including the:
- Associate of Science in business administration
- Bachelor of Science in business administration
- Bachelor of Science in organizational leadership
- Doctor of Business Administration
- Master of Business Administration
- Master of Science in organizational leadership
ACBSP accreditation evaluates leadership, strategic planning, relationships with stakeholders, quality of academic programs, faculty credentials and more.
Universities whose programs are accredited through ACBSP are committed to continuous improvement and providing business programs that will give students the skills employers are seeking and ensures that students gain appropriate skills from their educational investment.
According to the ACBSP mission, the accrediting body is committed to “igniting a standard of excellence with an accreditation process based on the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence.”
While the ACBSP accreditation process may take up to three years to complete, CSU gained this new programmatic accreditation in less than a year.
“Generally, the time to achieve accreditation is three years, yet CSU was able to demonstrate compliance to all standards in less than a year,” said Elwin Jones, Ph.D., vice provost for CSU’s doctoral center and dean of the College of Business and Technology. Jones indicated that CSU’s assessment standard, or method of testing, was a key point in the evaluation as it was found well-established and academically sound.
CSU has held institutional accreditation since 2001 and was granted institutional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) on Dec. 6, 2022. To learn more, visit ColumbiaSouthern.edu.
Multiple factors, including prior experience, geography and degree field, affect career outcomes. CSU does not guarantee a job, promotion, salary increase, eligibility for a position, or other career growth.