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ACBSP, founded in 1988 and located in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, was created by its members to fulfill a need for specialized accreditation by institutions of higher education with business schools and programs. Specifically, that need was for business education accreditation based on the mission of the institution and of the respective business unit, an accreditation that acknowledged and emphasized quality in teaching and learning outcomes.
There are approximately 2400 U.S. institutions of higher education that have business programs in the five traditional fields of business education - accounting, business administration, finance, management and marketing. Many institutions also have specialized areas of study such as human resource management, management information systems, and public administration that are a part of a business academic unit and considered to be business-related curricula. Most of these institutions have as their primary, student-oriented objective excellence in teaching as opposed to a heavy emphasis on research. They wanted an accrediting organization that had this teaching emphasis reflected in its accreditation standards. Their response was the creation of ACBSP.
In August of 1992, ACBSP was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a specialized accreditation agency for business education. That recognition continued through April 1996, until the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) was created. In January 2001, ACBSP received its recognition from CHEA.
Today, ACBSP with its 430 members, 261 of whom have successfully achieved accreditation, is recognized both nationally and internationally as the leading specialized accrediting agency for business education to support, celebrate and reward excellence in teaching and learning outcomes.