New Program Accreditation

For EAMBA purposes, a new business program is defined to be any business program that:

• is added to an institution’s offerings subsequent to the granting of accreditation;
• is substantially different than the programs that are already accredited by the EAMBA; and
• does not appear in the listing of accredited programs that are identified in the institution’s accreditation letter.

These new programs may be newly created, or they may be existing programs transferred to the academic accounting unit to administer.

If the academic unit wishes to have any new business programs accredited prior to its next reaffirmation review, the following criteria must be satisfied:

Each new program must have at least one set of graduates for which there are learning outcome assessment results.

A self-study must be submitted for the new programs that addresses the ‘New Program Accreditation Principles’ as detailed in the New Program Accreditation Manual.

An outcomes assessment plan that addresses student learning assessment must be developed for each new program.

Requirements for New Program Accreditation

For the new business programs of an academic Unit to be considered for accreditation by the EAMBA, the academic unit must:

Submit the Report on New Programs.

• After review, the EAMBA will notify your institution if the following steps are required.
• Submit an application for new program accreditation, an application supplement containing programmatic information, and pay the application fee.
• Submit an outcomes assessment plan that addresses student learning assessment for each new program for which the academic unit is seeking accreditation. The assessment plan must encompass all of the new programs, must conform to EAMBA expectations and requirements as outlined in the EAMBA document entitled “Guidelines for Preparing an Outcomes Assessment Plan,” and must be prepared using the assessment plan template developed by the EAMBA.
• Prepare a new program self-study. Additional resources are available in the Member Only Resource are of the website.
• If applicable, undergo a site-visit (contact the EAMBA to determine if the program will require a site visit).
• Be reviewed by the EAMBA Board of Commissioners.
• Until the Board of Commissioners has reviewed and granted accreditation to any new programs, the academic unit and its parent institution must not list the new programs among those that are accredited by the EAMBA.

Guidelines for preparing the new program self-study are found in the EAMBA’s New Program Accreditation Manual. It is essential that these guidelines be followed when preparing the self-study. Incomplete, inaccurate, or poorly organized information may jeopardize a program’s potential for accreditation.

A preliminary draft copy of the self-study must be submitted to EAMBA headquarters at least 90 days prior to the scheduled review by the EAMBA Board of Commissioners. Upon receipt of the draft self-study, EAMBA staff will contact the academic unit to schedule a virtual meeting for the purpose of conducting an initial technical review of the self-study for completeness and accuracy. This technical review will not include any judgments regarding the quality of the responses contained in the self-study, nor will it evaluate the extent of the academic unit’s compliance with the EAMBA’s Accreditation Principles, policies, and requirements. These determinations are the prerogative of and will be made by the Board of Commissioners.

The purposes of the technical review are:

• to identify any technical issues associated with the academic unit’s self-study (i.e., missing, incomplete, and/or inaccurate information) and
• to help to ensure a smooth visit by the site-visit team. Any missing or incomplete responses and inaccurate information will be communicated to the academic unit during the technical review consultation.

Subsequent to the review, the academic unit will then revise its self-study accordingly to ensure that it is complete, addresses all Accreditation Principles, and is in the appropriate format with accurate tables. The revised, final self-study must be submitted to EAMBA headquarters at least 30 days prior to the review by the Board of Commissioners. No accreditation review will be conducted until the EAMBA has received the final self-study documents.