Shenandoah University is proud to announce that the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business has earned its maintenance of accreditation from the AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The business school earned its initial accreditation on April 22, 2007.
“We are excited and honored to have earned this maintenance of accreditation and to know that AACSB has full-faith in our business school and its programs,” said Dean Randy Boxx. “This process began the day after we received word of our initial accreditation, and I am thankful for the hard work of the faculty, staff, students and Board of Advisors to maintain this distinction.”
The process to maintain accreditation includes 21 standards to which the business school must adhere. These standards are the backdrop behind the decisions that are made and the management of the business school. Dean Boxx and his colleagues developed a strategic plan and a series of processes to insure continuous improvement based on those standards.
“There’s hardly a day that goes by that I’m not considering some aspect of our strategic plan, that I’m not considering some aspect of those 21 standards, or that I’m not considering at least some part of our Byrd School Operating Guidelines, the processes that we follow to insure continuous improvement,” said Boxx.
The Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business is one of 649 accredited institutions in the world spanning 43 countries. Those 649 institutions make up less than five percent of the world’s business schools.
The maintenance of accreditation included three commendations – the outstanding leadership provided by Dean Boxx, the engaged Board of Advisors of the business school and the faculty who have both academic qualifications as well as real-world professional experience.
In addition, kudos were given to seven effective practices: the Global Experiential Learning (GEL) program, the Global Citizenship Project (GCP), the business school’s internship program, the implementation of a learning enrichment coach, a strong interaction with other schools on campus, the strategic planning process and the assurance of learning process.
“The development and implementation of the business school’s mission driven assurance of learning process forced the faculty to consider what we expect our students to learn and whether they are actually learning what we expect them to learn,” said Associate Professor of Finance Bruce Gouldey. “In the spirit of continuous improvement, we regularly review the assessment results and have made numerous curriculum changes, both small and large, based upon our analysis of the results.”
“Cultivating ‘successful, principled leaders with a global perspective’ necessitates learning by doing,” said Associate Professor of Management RT Good. “To realize this mission of the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, we assist students with action learning – getting out into the world where they learn and contribute through GCP and GEL.
“Both programs are stepping-stones for students to live and study abroad on a longer-term basis or, ultimately, to live and work abroad as future business professionals. A leading academic unit in global education, the Byrd School of Business has developed unique experiential programs that have become hallmarks of the Shenandoah University educational experience,” said Good.
Shenandoah University is the private, nationally recognized applied liberal arts institution, located in Winchester, Va., with an enrollment of more than 3,600 students. Shenandoah’s close-knit community is rich in creative energy and intellectual challenge. Shenandoah empowers its students to help the human condition and to be principled professionals and leaders wherever they go.
