On the morning of July 8, 2021, Professor Xiong Wei from the Business School of the University of International Business and Economics was invited to the School of Management to deliver a training session on Assurance of Learning (AOL)—the most critical component of AACSB accreditation. Faculty representatives from all departments attended the training lecture, which was hosted by Shao Jing, Director of the School’s International Accreditation Office.

From the faculty perspective, Professor Xiong elaborated on the significance of curriculum alignment with program educational objectives in the accreditation process. She also shared the challenges she encountered and the insights she gained during her own experience with AACSB accreditation.

She pointed out that AACSB accreditation brings substantial benefits to business school education. AOL ensures the teaching quality of degree programs by establishing a more scientific curriculum system. The school needs to develop a sound curriculum map, and continuously adjust the proportion of each course in the map based on its characteristics to effectively support the program educational objectives. Meanwhile, instructors of all courses should carefully design the approaches to achieve course objectives, formulate corresponding assessment methods in line with the program educational objectives, and refine teaching content. This will enable targeted teaching, facilitate constant self-evaluation and continuous improvement, and ultimately achieve the goal of promoting development through assessment.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Xiong engaged in a warm interactive session with the audience, answering numerous questions raised by the faculty regarding curriculum design and assessment score calculation. All participating teachers expressed that they had benefited greatly from the session.

With nearly a century of development, the standards and evaluation criteria of AACSB international accreditation have become the authoritative benchmark for global management education. A key focus of AACSB business school accreditation lies in emphasizing innovation and prioritizing the student learning assurance system. With the joint efforts of all faculty and staff, the school’s international accreditation work has now entered the phase of constructing the AOL curriculum assurance system.

(Written by Ma Yiting; Reviewed by Qiao Caiyan)