Business-School Accreditor Opens Regional Headquarters in Singapore

In a sign of Asia’s growing importance in management education, the world’s largest accreditor for business schools today opened its first regional headquarters, in Singapore, AACSB International: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business announced.

The new Asia office will help the association strengthen its membership, professional-development, and accreditation services in the region.

“In recent years management education has experienced a mercurial level of growth worldwide,” said John J. Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of AACSB International. “Today the Asian region hosts more than 5,000 business programs and is now the largest center of management education in the world.”

The association accredits 568 business schools in 33 countries. Twenty of the accredited programs are in Asia, and two of those are in Singapore.

Globalization has been the buzzword on nearly every business-school administrator’s mind in recent years, although some speakers at the association’s annual conference in February questioned whether much of the talk was more hype than substance.

Nonetheless, AACSB officials say the interest in Asia is real, and they want to ensure that new programs and partnerships there are educationally sound.

“Successful growth in management education is critical for Asia, and ensuring that the growth is based on quality is of vital importance to AACSB,” said Rick Cosier, chairman of the board of AACSB International and dean of Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. —Katherine Mangan