CityU's Faculty of Business (FB) has been accredited by AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) for its high quality, mission-driven teaching and research activities.  The Faculty is among the first batch of business schools to be accredited after AACSB adopted new international accreditation standards in 2003.  To date, CityU is the third university in the Greater China area to have gained this prestigious recognition.  The other two are The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

 

FB's AACSB accreditation is consistent with the new role statement agreed upon with the University Grants Committee in January 2004, which stipulates that CityU is expected to be internationally competitive in all taught programmes offered and in selected areas of research strength.

 

Founded in 1916, AACSB International grants accreditation to undergraduate and graduate business administration and accounting programmes worldwide following a rigorous accreditation process that reviews the entire business school, including its research activities.  AACSB International accreditation is now widely recognized as a hallmark of the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. 

 

“The AACSB Peer Review Team commended our degree programmes as demonstrating overall high quality,” said FB Dean, Professor L K Chan.  “The team was also impressed by the strong commitment to continuous improvement shown by the faculty as well as the university administration.”  Under normal circumstances, a business school initiating the application for business accreditation takes several years to complete the process in achieving the accreditation.  In the case of Faculty of Business, CityU, it started in late 2002 and being granted the accreditation in January 2005.  The AACSB Peer Review Team, comprising deans of leading business schools in the world, visited CityU 24 to 27 October 2004 and recommended that FB be granted business accreditation.  Stringent requirements on teaching resources, faculty qualifications and research output, and a quality assurance system have to be met after AACSB revised its accreditation standards in 2003.  CityU is the first university in the Greater China area to have met the revised standards.  Other AACSB accredited business schools worldwide include Harvard Business School, London Business School, The University of Sydney Faculty of Economics and Business, and Keio University Business School.

 

“The team of business school deans was particularly impressed by our undergraduate First Year Experience programme,” FB Associate Dean, Professor K K Lai, said.  “We have even been asked to demonstrate our First Year Experience initiative as a role model at their major conferences.”  The FB First Year Experience programme is distinguished by its unique blend of IT supported learning and ethics oriented education.  A Supplemental Instruction Scheme encourages collaborative learning in small, student-led teams in which senior students help first year students become effective learners.  Interactive learning is supported by wireless PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) through which students are encouraged to raise questions and give feedback during lectures.  Students can put what they learn into practice through a Web-based virtual department store, the e-organization.  They also integrate the advanced knowledge acquired with FB's five core values of integrity, responsibility, fairness, respect, and compassion, which are embedded into core courses.  The lecturers and tutors of all FB core courses hold a half-day forum at the beginning of each semester and have informal lunch information sharing gathering each month.

 

FB Associate Dean, Professor Matthew Lee, added that the review team was

equally impressed by the faculty's research output and excellence.  “Knowledge and Innovation Management (KIM) is an important research area in the Faculty of Business,” said Professor Lee.  Within a short span of 15 years, FB's research output has placed the faculty among the top 80 business schools in the world.  KIM is one of the six areas at CityU recently recognized by the University Grants Committee (UGC), HKSAR, as having demonstrated competitiveness at an international level.  Furthermore, FB's collaborative projects with the Mainland, such as the professional training programme offered in partnership with the Beijing Capital International Airport, have received positive comments from the review team.  This reaffirms CityU FB's position as a leading Asia-Pacific business school, one that is deeply rooted in China and widely networked in the Asia-Pacific region.