Kent State University has maintained its accounting accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International). Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business and accounting education and has been earned by less than 5 percent of the world’s business programs. Today, there are 672 business schools in 44 countries and territories that maintain AACSB accreditation. Of these, 178 institutions maintain an additional specialized AACSB accreditation for their accounting programs.

“AACSB congratulates Dean Deborah Spake, of the College of Business Administration, along with Associate Professor and Accounting Chair Linda Zucca for maintaining AACSB accreditation for the school’s accounting program,” says Robert D. Reid, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. “Dean Spake and the accounting faculty and staff at Kent State are to be commended for their exemplary work in maintaining the highest honor in business school accounting accreditation.”

To realize accounting accreditation, an institution must maintain AACSB business accreditation. Then, in addition to developing and implementing a mission-driven plan to satisfy the business accreditation quality standards, accounting accreditation requires the satisfaction of an additional set of standards that are specific to the discipline and profession of accounting.

“As the result of our commitment to excellence in accounting education, we remain one of the 178 institutions worldwide that have achieved this honor,” Zucca says. “AACSB accreditation affirms the quality of our programs and the impact of our faculty, current students and alumni on the business communities that we serve.”

“Business schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty and professional staff must make a commitment to continuous improvement to ensure that the institution will continue to deliver the highest quality of education to students,” Reid says. “It takes a great deal of commitment and determination to earn and maintain AACSB accounting accreditation.”

Kent State’s College of Business Administration provides a high-quality education in business and a foundation for lifelong learning. The college has more than 100 faculty members and 4,000 students spanning bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and executive degrees. The business curriculum is a combination of instructional, research and scholarship, experiential and outreach learning. It serves as an important resource for Northeast Ohio and is recognized nationally and internationally.

To learn more about Kent State’s College of Business Administration and the Department of Accounting, visit www.kent.edu/business.