The College of Business at Fort Hays State University has received awards for its affordability, most notably their online degrees.
The Bachelor of Business Administration ranks fourth in the nation in affordability among all universities according to geteducated.com.
The Bachelor of Science in Information Networking & Telecommunication / Computer Networking ranks second in the nation according to the same website.
The same website ranked FHSU’s online MBA program 14th in affordability.
The awards haven’t just been going to the online degrees or to the College, but also to individuals from FHSU.
In 2010 and 2012 an FHSU alum received an Elijah Watt Sells Award for their performance on the CPA exam.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants gives this award to recognize outstanding performance on the Uniform CPA Examination. The award is given each year to candidates who have obtained the 10 highest cumulative scores on the four sections of the exam.
In 2011 a team from FHSU’s College of Business earned first place in the Financial Planning Challenge in San Diego. FHSU had placed in the top five for ten years straight prior to that.
More recently the MBA program was listed among the 10 MBA programs for studying abroad in China by MBAprograms.org.
With all of these awards the college of business remains unaccredited by any accrediting agency, most notably the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The AACSB was founded in 1916 and accredits 687 schools in 45 countries including six Kansas schools.
Of the six Kansas Board of Regents schools, five have been accredited. FHSU is the only school in the regents system not accredited by the AACSB.
Washburn, which is not a regents school, is the sixth Kansas school accredited by the AACSB. The AACSB also accredits business schools from universities such as Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and New York University.
There are less prestigious accrediting associations with lower standards for accreditation such as the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) that accredits 18 Kansas institutes of higher learning including seven junior colleges. FHSU is not accredited by the ACBSP either.
FHSU as a whole is an accredited institution, but the school of business does not have a specialized accreditation. There remains some confusion about what it means to have a specialized accreditation. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. An agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education. FHSU is an accredited university.
A specialized accreditation is awarded to individual programs that meet certain standards involving curriculum, research and other areas specific to a certain school or program.
The AACSB Accreditation Standards are used as the basis to evaluate a business school’s mission, operations, faculty qualifications and contributions, programs and other critical areas. An accreditation from AACSB “ensures students and parents that the business school is providing a top-quality education. It also ensures employers that AACSB-accredited business school graduates are ready to perform on day one.”
These standards are in place to create continuity among schools across the country, as well as give employers an idea of the type curriculum an applicant was exposed in college. It shows that a student at Emporia’s School of Business was taught the same material as a student at the Harvard Business School. The quality of the education will differ, but the core curriculum remains consistent among the schools.