Standards for Faculty Qualification

Qualified Faculty status applies to faculty members who sustain intellectual capital in theirfields of teaching, demonstrating currency and relevance of intellectual capital to support the school’s mission, expected outcomes, and strategies, including teaching, scholarship, and other mission components. The 2013 AACSB Standards categorize the qualification of faculty along two dimensions: Initial Preparation (Academic or Professional) and Sustained Engagement Activities (Research/Scholarly or Applied/Practice). The two dimensions create four patterns that faculty may use to maintain their qualified status: Scholarly Academic, Practice Academic, Scholarly Practitioner and Instructional Practitioner. These are presented in the table below.

Research/Scholarly Engagement / Applied/Practice Engagement
Academic Preparation (PhD, DBA, JD) / Scholarly Academic (SA) / Practice Academic (PA)
Professional Preparation
(Masters/Certification/Experience) / Scholarly Practitioner (SP) / Instructional Practitioner (IP)
  • Scholarly Academics (SA) sustain currency and relevance through scholarship and related activities. Normally, SA status is granted to newly hired faculty members who earned their research doctorates within the last five years prior to the accreditation review dates. Accreditation in this category is maintained with a strong publication record as described in the “sustained engagement activities’ section below. This category includes all research-active tenure track faculty who would be eligible for promotion and reduced course loads for research.
  • Practice Academics (PA) sustain currency and relevance through professional engagement, interaction with practice, and relevant activities. Normally, PA status applies to faculty members who augment their initial preparation as academic scholars (originally as SA status) with development and engagement activities that involve substantive linkages to practice, consulting, expert witness work, or other forms of professional engagement. This work should be linked to the faculty members’ earlier work as an SA faculty member. This category includes either non-tenure-track faculty that have a terminal degree and sustain their engagement through scholarly activityor tenure-track faculty that have switched their engagement from scholarly activity to applied/practice activity. A tenure-track faculty member in this category would no longer have the option for promotion or course releases.PA status is sustained as outlined below.
  • Scholarly Practitioners (SP) sustain currency and relevance through continuedprofessional experience, engagement, or interaction and scholarship related to their professional background and experience. Normally, SP status applies to practitioner faculty members who augment their experience with development and engagement activities involving substantive scholarly activities in their fields of teaching. This category would include non-tenure-track faculty with a professional preparation that and sustain their engagement through scholarly activity, such as journal publications, case studies or the writing of books/book chapters. The level of scholarly activity required for qualification is lower than that for tenure-track faculty.SP status is sustained as outlined below.
  • Instructional Practitioners (IP) sustain currency and relevance through continued professional experience and engagement related to their professional backgrounds and experience. Normally, IP status is granted to newly hired faculty members who join the faculty with significant and substantive professional experience. This category would include non-tenure-track faculty with a professional preparation that and sustain their engagement through applied/practice activity. IP status is sustained as outlined below.

Initial Academic Preparation

The criteria for determining the initial preparation status of a faculty member are as follows:

  • Academic Preparation - Completion of a terminal degree in a business-related field. This will typically be a PhD, DBA or JD, with other degrees also being acceptable in certain circumstances.Appropriate certification may also be required in certain fields (e.g., accountancy). The less related a doctoral degree is to the fields of teaching, the more higher levels of sustained, substantive academic and/or professional engagement must be demonstrated to support currency and relevance in the fields of teaching, at either the SA or SP levels.
  • Professional Preparation - Completion of a Masters degree (MBA, MS, MMA, etc.) and/or certification (CPA) in a business-related field or a field related to the area of teaching (communication, computer science, psychology, accountancy, etc.). Individuals without master’s degrees would need to demonstrate that the depth, duration, sophistication, and complexity of their professional experience at the time of hiring outweighs their lack of master’s degree qualifications. Significant business experience (senior management, executive, etc.) relevant to the area of teaching is necessarily required. This would generally be at least three years in a senior business role although an absolute minimum is not specified.

Sustained Engagement Activities

Initial Preparation is sufficient to establish engagement in a given qualified status for a period of five years. Following that period, sustained engagement must be demonstrated using one of the two following paths:

  • Research/Scholarly Engagement For Scholarly Academic
  • Publication of two blind peer-reviewed papers in business related academic journals (as defined by the department/school journal lists or approved equivalent) during the previous five years.
  • Participation in at least twosignificant professional development activities within the previous five years associated with remaining current in the discipline in which the faculty member teaches such asan externally peer reviewed book, monograph, substantive chapter, case, or research report from sponsored research, relevant, active editorships with academic journals or other business publications, service on editorial boards or committees, leadership positions or participation in recognized academic societies and associations, research awards, academic fellow status, invited presentations, sessions at professional conferences, teaching seminars offered internally or externally, professional training, and other equivalent activities.
  • Research/Scholarly Engagement For Scholarly Practitioners
  • Publication of twoblind peer-reviewed papers in a business related or professional journal during the previous five years or externally peer reviewed book, monograph, substantive chapter, case, or research report from sponsored research.
  • Participation in at least two professional development activities within the previous five years associated with remaining current in the discipline in which the faculty member teaches such as sessions at professional conferences, teaching seminars offered internally or externally, professional training, and other equivalent activities.
  • Applied/Practice Engagement For Practice Academic
  • Multiple activities within the previous five years resulting in the accumulation of 20 points in the Applied/Practice Engagement Point System (see Appendix A). This point system includes activitiessuch as consulting, expert witness work, development and presentation of executive education programs, sustained professional work, significant participation in business professional associations and societies, relevant, active service on significant boards of directors, documented continuing professional education experiences, documented professional certifications in the area of teaching, and so forth.
  • Participation in at least two professional development activities within the previous five years associated with remaining current in the discipline in which the faculty member teaches such assessions at professional conferences, teaching seminars offered internally or externally, professional training, and other equivalent activities.
  • Applied/Practice Engagement For Practice Academic and Instructional Practitioner
  • Multiple activities within the previous five years resulting in the accumulation of 20 points in the Applied/Practice Engagement Point System (see Appendix A). This point system includes activities such as consulting, expert witness work, development and presentation of executive education programs, sustained professional work, significant participation in business professional associations and societies, relevant, active service on significant boards of directors, documented continuing professional education experiences, documented professional certifications in the area of teaching, and so forth.
  • Participation in at least two professional development activities within the previous five years associated with remaining current in the discipline in which the faculty member teaches such as sessions at professional conferences, teaching seminars offered internally or externally, professional training, and other equivalent activities.

Appendix A

Applied/Practice Engagement Point System

The purpose of this point system is to place potential applied/practice engagement activities into various levels to help faculty members determine when a combination of activities becomes sufficient to maintain qualification under the Applied/Practice Engagement category. Normally it would be expected that faculty would maintain more than this minimum number of activities and that the activities would be distributed across the entire five year period. Activities should generally be related to the discipline area in which the faculty member teaches and support the faculty member's maintenance of current knowledge in the discipline.

Level 3 - Automatically results in qualified status for five years – 20 points

  • Completion of a Ph.D./ Master's degree within the past 5 years
  • Completion of recognized certification within the past 5 years (e.g., CPA, CFA, APICS, etc.)
  • Demonstrating significant work experience related to the faculty member's teaching area within the past 5 years

Level 2 - Single events contributing substantially to engagement – 10 points

  • Development of a significant published software product
  • Publishing an article in recognized professional or trade publication
  • Author a popular press book that achieved national distribution
  • Writing and/or presenting peer-reviewed paper/session to academic/professional association
  • Significant consulting for major corporations
  • Significant expert witness work

Level 1 - Repeated events with limited maximum usage

  • 1-3 points per year, maximum 15 points in 5 years
  • Maintaining professional certification through continuing education (e.g., CPA)
  • Attending conferences, workshops, seminars, courses or other continuing education opportunities that advance, develop, or update the faculty member’s teaching area knowledge or teaching skills (does not include continuing education related to maintaining certification).
  • 1-5 points per year, maximum 10 points in 5 years
  • Author a report or white paper from sponsored research that is widely disseminated
  • Writing a teaching case or similar experiential learning case that is publicly available
  • 1-2 points per year, maximum 10 points in 5 years
  • Involvement in consulting or working in a profession with responsibilities related to the faculty member's teaching area.
  • Serving as a board member (for-profit, non-profit, industry association, advisory board)
  • Serving as an expert witness
  • 1 point per year, maximum 3 points in 5 years
  • Creating and/or delivering an executive education seminar
  • Acting as session chair or panel member at a professional conference
  • Attending an academic or professional conference in the area of the faculty member’s primary teaching responsibility
  • Delivering a speech or presentation to a local or regional organization
  • Other -Items not listed above -
  • Requires documentation and support of the department chair for equivalency