UHV business school earns international reaccreditation
After an intensive, five-year information accumulation process and a visit from reviewers, the University of Houston-Victoria School of Business Administration has been reaccredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
To maintain accreditation, the business school must undergo a rigorous review every five years. The school must demonstrate its continued commitment to quality standards related to faculty qualification, strategic management and assurance of learning. Less than 5 percent of business schools worldwide earn this mark of excellence.
“I’m very proud of the highly skilled and devoted faculty and staff of the School of Business Administration for receiving reaccreditation by AACSB,” said Ken Colwell, dean of the school. “This prestigious accreditation is an important signal to both potential students and their employers of the quality and value of a business degree from UHV.”
The AACSB accreditation is in addition to UHV’s accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The business school first was accredited by AACSB in 2005 and has successfully renewed its accreditation every five years.
“AACSB congratulates the UHV School of Business Administration and Dean Ken Colwell on extending accreditation,” said Stephanie M. Bryant, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. “The intense peer-review process confirms a school’s continued focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curriculum development and student learning. The School of Business Administration’s dedication to delivering high-quality business education will create the next generation of great leaders.”
Xavier Garza-Gomez, the school’s chair of Finance & Economics, supervises the database that the school used to gather information about the school’s faculty activities and research that is used in the reaccreditation application. The school’s faculty must participate in three service categories: professional, community and university. Faculty members’ activities, from volunteering to publishing research to student-focused events and more, are recorded and included in yearly reports that are then compiled into one large five-year report.
“Part of accreditation is proving that our faculty members are constantly working to improve themselves, the university and the community,” Garza-Gomez said. “They have to prove they are staying relevant and qualified by publishing research, attending conferences and following current market trends while also investing time in students and the community.”
In addition to submitting a five-year report, the school had an on-site review in February. The reviewers arrived on a Sunday night and spent two days talking to different committees and teams that were involved with the university, including division chairs; alumni; the curriculum committee; junior, senior and adjunct faculty; and the dean’s advisory committee. Afterward, the reviewers shared recommendations for changes with the school’s leadership before presenting their findings to the accreditation committee for approval.
At the end of UHV’s review, the reviewers offered a few minor recommendations for changes, but they also offered praise for some of the business school’s programs, said Rhiannon Smith, the school’s director of administration and student services. Some of the programs the reviewers noted as best practices were the school’s Bachelor of Business Administration Case Conference, a competition held every semester as part of a capstone course for graduating undergraduate students, as well as the Alumni Week activities, the school’s assurance of learning process and outcomes and the strong policies and infrastructure of the school.
“The review was a whirlwind of meetings and information,” Smith said. “When it was finished, it was a huge relief, and it gave the faculty and staff a sense of pride to know that our hard work has paid off with such a positive review.”
To learn more about the UHV School of Business Administration, visit www.uhv.edu/business. To learn more about AACSB International accreditation, go to www.aacsb.edu/accreditation.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
