University of California, Riverside Chancellor, France A. Córdova, today announced that the University's A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management (AGSM) has gained accreditation from AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
"I am both pleased and proud of this recognition for our business school. I congratulate the faculty for its commitment and leadership during this process," said Chancellor Córdova. "Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in management education."
AGSM's states its mission as: the pursuit of excellence in substantive scholarly research enhancing the world's base of knowledge about organizations, their environments, and their management, and to the transmission of this knowledge through quality educational programs to students, alumni, business managers and the public.
AGSM's achieves it mission by conducting basic and applied research in management, by providing undergraduate and graduate degree programs to prepare students to be effective managers, by delivering external educational programs to executives and the public at large, and by being responsive to the needs of local, state, national, and international communities.
AGSM offers the largest program of one of only two undergraduate business programs in the University of California system. Current undergraduate enrollment is at 2,680 students with 1,205 business majors and 1,475 pre-business majors. There are 132 students in the MBA program. On July 1, 2003 AGSM will add ten faculty members to its current group of 32 full-time tenured/tenure track faculty members.
"This is such an exciting time for our program and our campus," said AGSM Interim Dean, Y. Peter Chung. "With a broad mission that includes research, teaching and public service, AGSM set a higher bar for itself than many other business schools do in the AACSB International accreditation process. Having this accreditation will be a tremendous asset for our marketing, recruiting, and fund raising efforts, which will help us with the growth and expansion of our programs."
Accreditation is a mission-driven process of voluntary, non-governmental review of educational institutions and programs. Institutions that earn accreditation confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive peer review.
One purpose of the peer review process is to stimulate further continuous improvement of quality business programs. AACSB International's report on UC Riverside commended the school on numerous points including: its strong core of senior faculty, supportive central administration, especially from Chancellor Córdova, faculty planning process introduced by Interim Dean Peter Chung, strong enrollment growth, high degree of student satisfaction with faculty accessibility and advising services, excellent computer laboratory facilities and technology support, collaboration with the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences for teaching the perspectives and skill requirements, well developed University personnel evaluation system, and high quality faculty.
AACSB International was founded in 1916 and began its accreditation function with the adoption of the first standards in 1919. It is the professional association for college and university management education and it is he premier accrediting agency for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting.
AGSM traces its start to the Graduate School of Administration, which was founded in 1970. The name was changed to the Graduate School of Management in 1982, and then to the A. Gary Anderson Graduate of Management in 1994 in honor of A. Gary Anderson, the founder of Director's Mortgage. A Master of Business Administration degree program was introduced in 1983 followed in 1985 by an undergraduate degree program in Business Administration.
The University of California, Riverside offers undergraduate and graduate education to about 16,000 students and has a projected enrollment of 21,000 students by 2010. It is the fastest growing and most ethnically diverse campus of the preeminent ten-campus University of California system, the largest public research university system in the world. The picturesque 1,200-acre campus is located at the foot of the Box Springs Mountains near downtown Riverside in Southern California.
More information about UC Riverside is available here or by calling 909-787-5185.