Source: School of Business
Written by: School of Business
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Sun Yat-sen Business School (SYSBS) at Sun Yat-sen University has earned initial accreditation by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The School received a formal letter on July 17, 2013 from the AACSB headquarters, notifying that AACSB’s Board of Directors has ratified granting SYSBS initial accreditation for five years.

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 education, and has been earned by less than five percent of the world's business programs.

"It takes a great deal of commitment and determination to earn AACSB Accreditation," said Robert D. Reid, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. “Business schools must not only meet specific standards of excellence, but their deans, faculty, and professional staff must make a commitment to ongoing continuous improvement to ensure that the institution will continue to deliver the highest quality of education to students.”

Over the past years, the entire SYSBS community, including its faculty, students, and staff have diligently worked toward this important endeavor and voluminously benefitted support from its alumni, partners and all other stakeholders. The School has also significantly benefitted from professional assessment and advices from the accreditation mentor and peer review team (PRT) assigned by AACSB over the course of preparations.

"My most heartfelt congratulations and thanks to the School’s leadership and its all faculty, students and staff! It is an important milestone for both the School and the University in international accreditation, which not only recognizes what our business school has achieved in the journey of internationalization but also an enormous encouragement for other colleges and schools of the University to forge ahead globally,” noted Professor Xu Ningsheng, President of Sun Yat-sen University.

Established in 1985, SYSBS was the first business school in mainland China instituted by an overseas foundation. As one of the oldest and leading business schools in mainland China, SYSBS has been accredited by AMBA in 2010, EQUIS accreditation by EFMD in 2011, and now AACSB International in July 2013. SYSBS becomes the second business school in mainland China that has received all three major international accreditations. In 2012, its EMBA was ranked #11 and Master’s in Management #58 worldwide by FT. In 2013, its business programs at all levels were tied for the second best nationwide awarded by the central government.