Communicating the Value of Program-Level Accreditation for Information Systems in the College of Business

Undergraduate programs in Information Systems continue to face challenges to offer a curriculum that is both rigorous and relevant. Specialized college-level accreditation, such as AACSB, and programlevel accreditation, such as ABET, offer an opportunity to signal quality in academics while also remaining relevant to local stakeholders and constituents. Computing programs in schools with AACSB accreditation may face challenges in maintaining relevance to meet local stakeholder needs when a technically oriented computing program exists alongside other less technically-inclined programs in business. The challenge is to meet the needs of the technical program as all programs work toward meeting the mission-driven needs of the college. This paper makes the case that program-level accreditation can be used to complement school-level accreditation while carefully managing the needs of a technical program in business computing. The culture and characteristics of ABET and AACSB are discussed with a perspective drawn from recent experiences in attaining initial accreditation from both ABET and AACSB. Data regarding each accreditation is examined to determine why more Information Systems programs are not accredited, or seeking accreditation, now that it has been over 10 years since Information Systems programs have been accredited by ABET’s Computing Accreditation Commission. Several threats, challenges, imperatives, and opportunities in seeking both accreditations are discussed. Particular attention is afforded lessons learned from seeking and earning both accreditations simultaneously. This paper holds the position that the benefits of both accreditations outweigh the limitations. However, IS programs seeking ABET accreditation in light of AACSB accreditation must be prepared to communicate the value of programlevel accreditation.