How to Increase Your Accreditation ROI

Posted by Pamela Wong

 

The Baldrige Program had the opportunity to exhibit last weekend at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP). It’s always nice to reconnect with ACBSP’s friendly members, which consists largely of private U.S. colleges, but I met international attendees, too, from Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, and Slovenia, among other countries.

The Baldrige/ACSBP connection is strong, for ACBSP’s accreditation standards are based heavily on the Baldrige Criteria and even include a site visit. The conference schedule included a session on “Baldrige across the Curriculum,” and our Deputy Director Jeff Lucas presented another with Ray Eldridge, “Using the Baldrige Enterprise to Increase Your Accreditation ROI.”

Ray, associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate professor at Lipscomb University College of Business, serves both as a Baldrige examiner and as an accreditation examiner and mentor for ACBSP. In addition to ACBSP accreditation, the College of Business is involved with the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TCNPE), a Baldrige-based program. TNCPE’s four levels make the ACBSP accreditation process much easier, he said. In addition, the Baldrige Criteria align the University’s regular and specialized accreditations and university and government requirements.

In today’s fiscal reality, Ray said that universities are becoming more entrepreneurial. Change is no longer optional. “Baldrige gives us the template to battle opposition to change,” he said.

The bottom line is results, which account for nearly half of the Baldrige scoring process. While most organizations collect and record data for measurement, high-performance organizations go beyond to analyze and interpret—to manage—data. “If we don’t have [results], we may lose retention or enrollment and may not be able to get the faculty that we want,” Ray said. “Lipscomb is using our state Baldrige Program to impact our culture and processes.”

To access slides used in the presentation, click here.

Comments

[Jan Garfield]

Congratulations to Jeff and Ray on their important presentation to ACBSP conference participants. It's exciting to see the increasing number of higher ed and professional accrediting agencies that are adopting the Baldrige Criteria.

I would love to access the slides used in the presentation but the "click here" link isn't working for me. Any suggestions?

[Pamela Wong]

Jan, thanks for your comment. Sorry the slides link doesn't work. I'm working on a solution, but it probably won't occur until after the holiday weekend. Please check back. Happy 4th to you.