SOM Earns Accreditation

AACSB Lauds 'Well-managed Dramatic' Growth and Quality Faculty

By Patricia Schoch

The UTD School of Management (SOM) has been granted full accreditation of 
its undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs in both business 
administration and accounting by the board of directors of AACSB 
International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. 
SOM officials received word of the accreditation April 7 at the annual 
AACSB International meeting in Chicago.

In announcing the AACSB International Board's action, SOM Dean Hasan 
Pirkul thanked University and School administrators, faculty, advisory 
board members, students, and staff who worked together during the five-
year accreditation effort. "This is a milestone for our school," he said. 
"Accreditation is an important aspect as we grow and mature as a business 
school. It validates our programs, our faculty, our students, our 
involvement with the business community. It also validates our commitment 
to work to create a model business school at UTD."

Dean Pirkul cited a letter from Dr. John Kraft, chairman of AACSB 
International, that commends the SOM, especially its "remarkably well-
managed dramatic growth in student credit hours, while, at the same time, 
upgrading the quality of faculty." SOM enrollments are now at forty-three 
hundred, and students are served by eighty-four full-time faculty members, 
a dramatic increase in both numbers in the past five years.

The letter congratulates the SOM for "embracing the technology explosion 
all around it in Dallas'[s] Telecom Corridor," with the creation of a 
specialized master's degree with tracks in e-commerce, telecommunications 
management, and information technology. In addition, the letter lauds the 
School's interdisciplinary programs, the undergraduate double major in 
biology and business and the Master of Science degree in Medical 
Management, offered in conjunction with U.T. Southwestern Medical Center. 
It also commends the expansion of distance learning programs, including 
Global MBA Online, the Global Leadership Executive MBA, and Project 
Management's online programs.

Dr. Varghese Jacob, SOM's associate dean for administration who headed the 
accreditation project, noted the process was a faculty-driven one. AACSB 
International's self-study process asks schools to write a formal plan 
mapping out how they will build on identified strengths while eliminating 
identified weaknesses.

Succeeding with full accreditation for the SOM "indicates we meet or 
exceed quality standards established by AACSB International," Dr. Jacobs 
said. "It's one thing to say we're providing a quality education. This 
process allows us to get independent verification that we are indeed 
providing that quality education and that we have much in place to build 
on."

SOM's Accounting and Information Management Programs also received 
concurrent independent AACSB International accreditation. The AACSB 
International review team praised the programs' relevance for Information 
Age organizations, along with their faculty and curriculums. Dr. Rajiv 
Banker, Accounting and Information Management Programs director, observed 
that accreditation will "help us attain our goal of being recognized as a 
global leader in accounting education, both for the traditional areas of 
auditing, assurance, financial planning, and taxation services, and for 
the more contemporary areas of consulting, information technology, and 
international services."

Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, AACSB International is a not-for-
profit organization consisting of more than eight hundred educational 
organizations and corporations devoted to the promotion and improvement of 
higher education in business administration and management. Its mission is 
to provide global leadership in advancing management education through 
accreditation and by fostering international interchanges, key business 
linkages, sharing of best practice, and professional development.